Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, SL vs AFG 2024, Today Match Prediction 02 February 2024

SL vs AFG Match Prediction & Analysis

This may look like a mismatch on the face of it but the stakes are high for team Sri Lanka who were outplayed at home by Pakistan at home in July last year. The visitors dominated with bat and ball and whitewashed Sri Lanka 2-0, a feat not many teams have managed to achieve in the recent past. 

But a lot of things have changed for the home team. Dhananjaya De Silva has been entrusted with the captaincy, and it would be interesting to see how he goes about marshalling his troops against a spirited Afghanistan side, who are missing some big names including Rashid Khan.

Hasmatullah Shahidi, who led Afghanistan bravely in their inspiring world cup campaign, returns to action after a break. He’ll be hoping that his XI will show the same level of courage and fight that took them close to qualification in the world cup. Beating Sri Lanka in their home conditions is a very tough proposition, but the Afghans have a lot of promising talent in their bench that can surprise Sri Lanka if they play to potential.

RECENT PERFORMANCE

SL

AFG

L

BAN

382/10 in 86.0 4.44

BAN vs AFG

Bangladesh won by 546 runs

14 Jun 2023

AFG

425/4 in 80.0 5.31

HEAD TO HEAD

TEAMS PREVIEW

Sri Lanka Preview

This test marks a new beginning for team Sri Lanka in tests. The baton of test captaincy has been handed to Dhananjaya de Silva, who has made a reputation for himself in the test side for scoring some match-winning or match-saving knocks in the lower middle order, and for making breakthroughs with the ball when wickets look hard to come by. He had an excellent series personally, though, scoring a century and a couple of half centuries in four innings. But he didn’t quite get the he’d have liked from his teammates in that series.

After a poor series at home, all senior players will have a point to prove.  Dimuth Karunaratne, the man who has made it to several ICC test teams of the year in the past few years, will look to offer solidity at the top pairing up with his new opening partner. Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and Sadeera Samarawickrama make a gun batting unit on paper, but they'll look to back it up with some solid performances in this match. 

Prabath Jayasuriya , who raced to 59 wickets from just 9 matches, plays a big role in the spin bowling department. Ramesh Mendis, his spin bowling ally, had a series to forget against Pakistan in July last year and will be hoping to make amends in this series. The pacers couldn't do much against Pakistan, and they'll be itching to go out there and make some breakthroughs early on when the pitch offers assistance and the ball seams around.

Sri Lanka Predicted Playing XI:

Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), Sadeera Samarawickrama (wk), Ramesh Mendis/Kasun Rajitha, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando.

Sri Lanka Actual Playing XI:

Kusal Mendis, Nishan Madushka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dinesh Chandimal, Dhananjaya de Silva, Prabath Jayasuriya, Vishwa Fernando, Asitha Fernando, Chamika Gunasekara

Afghanistan Preview

Afghanistan's bowling stocks look depleted, and their inexperienced bowling line up may not have the firepower to trouble the hosts with the ball much. But they hope they can give the home team a run for their money with the bat, though.

Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi form the bedrock of their batting group, and so a lot of how far they can push Sri Lanka in this match will ride on the amount of runs these batsmen can score. Team Afghanistan’s best chance is to bat well when they get a chance and give their bowlers more than something to work with by putting a massive total on board. They’ll do well to take a leaf out of team Pakistan’s strategy when they visited last year. zplayed for long hours and piled on the runs, making sure Sri Lanka doesn’t get ahead with the game.

So, it will be great to see what this young team with a lot of other debutants and inexperienced players set out to achieve . Ikram Alikhil is one; he is an exciting talent who showed us what he’s capable of with some solid knocks in the world cup, but a test in Sri Lanka is a totally new ball game for him and some of his team mates who lack experience in this format.

Afghanistan Predicted Playing XI:

Ibrahim Zadran, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Nasir Jamal, Bahir Shah, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Zia-ur-Rehman, Yamin Ahmadzai, Mohammad Saleem, Zahir Khan.

Afghanistan Actual Playing XI:

Hashmatullah Shahidi, Ibrahim Zadran, Noor Ali Zadran, Nasir Jamal, Ikram Alikhil, Qais Ahmad, Zia ur Rehman, Mohammad Saleem Safi, Naveed Zadran, Nijat Masood, Rahmat Shah, Naveed Zadran

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

The pitch doesn’t look as spin-friendly as other strips we have seen at this venue, so spinners might not come into play fairly quickly. This wicket, surprisingly, has a green tinge to it so it might suit seam bowling early on and start assisting spinners after it dries out and becomes flatter. The weather looks good mostly but some brief episodes of rain are forecast during the match.

SL vs AFG Pitch Report

This match will be played at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo. The hosts have not been at their very best here, losing 3 of their last 5 games here. Worse yet, two of those losses- one against Pakistan and one against India- were innings defeats.

Toss: To Bat

The team that wins the toss will most likely elect to bat first. That has been the case on most occasions at this venue. The team winning the toss elected to have a bat first 8 times in the last ten matches alone.