Pak vs SL: Pakistan kick off Sri Lanka tour
July 11, 2022
- Pakistan to play three-day warm-up match.
- The situation in Colombo is calm for now.
- First Test will take place on July 16.
COLOMBO: The Babar Azam-led Pakistan squad kicked off their Sri Lanka Test tour Monday here at the Colts Cricket Club Ground.
The team will play a three-day warm-up match against Sri Lanka Cricket XI at the cricket ground before their first Test match against Sri Lanka, which will take place on July 16.
This will be the only three-day match that the Green Shirts will play after their training session at P Sara Oval was cancelled last Friday after Sri Lankan police imposed a curfew in some areas of Colombo ahead of violent protests against the government.
The team arrived in the island nation last Thursday and suffered a setback as a player support personnel of the squad tested positive for COVID-19 and was sent into five days of isolation.
The situation in Colombo, however, is now stable and the players will continue their tour as scheduled.
The people have been protesting in Sri Lanka against the worst economic crisis that the country has seen, demanding the president’s resignation for being responsible.
Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has informed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that he will resign, the prime minister's office said on Monday after tens of thousands of protesters stormed the official residences of both men.
Leaders of the protest movement have said crowds would keep occupying the residences of the president and prime minister in Colombo until they finally quit office.
Colombo, Sri Lanka's largest city, was calm on Monday as hundreds of people strolled into the president's secretariat and residence and toured the colonial-era buildings. Police made no attempt to stop anyone.
