The cricket governing body of Pakistan Cricket has cleared that the Pakistan squad will meet Sri Lanka for a 2 test matches bilateral series in the month of July in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Cricket is all set to welcome Pakistan for Sri Lanka vs Pakistan test series 2023. The series will commence following the 3 days warm-up match which will be held on 11th July in Colombo. Since the SL vs Pak test series 2023 is an integral part of the upcoming ICC World Test Championship 2023-2025, the series will be critical for both the teams as the conclusion of the series will decide the position of both the teams in the ICC Test championship 2023-2025 leaderboard. Currently, Pakistan is at the number 6th position whereas Sri Lanka is holding the 6th position in the ICC Test ranking table.
After the arrival of the Pakistan team in Sri Lanka in July 2023, the test series between SL vs Pak 2023 will commence with the first test match which will be played from 16th to 20th July at Galle International Cricket Stadium, then both the teams will head over to Sinhalese Sports Club to play the 2nd test match on 24th July.
In 2022, Pakistan visited Sri Lanka for a two test match series where series ended in draw 1-1 each. Pakistan will want to repeat the history of 2015 where they won the series by 2-1, on the other hand, Sri Lanka would like to take revenge by defeating Pakistan in July.
Under the captaincy of Babar Azam, the Pakistan test squad will arrive in Sri Lanka along with Grant Bradburn as a head coach. On the other hand, Sri Lanka will fight with Pakistan on the field under the leadership of Dimuth Karunaratne and the guidance of Chris Silverwood as a head coach. Dimuth Karunaratne made his test debut on 17 November 2012 against New Zealand, since then he has appeared in 78 tests where he contributed 5,768 runs with an average of 39.77 whereas Babar Azam made his test entry on 13th October 2016 against West Indies, since then he has made 2,851 from his 40 tests.
Currently, Pakistan stands at the number 6th place in the ICC test ranking whereas Sri Lanka is sitting at the 7th position. In terms of head to head in test cricket, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have met 57 times on the field where Pakistan got the upper hand by winning 21 matches whereas Sri Lanka won 17 matches, and 19 matches between both the teams were drawn.
Overall, as of July 2023, Pakistan has appeared in 451 matches where they won 146 matches and lost 139 tests with 166 tests drawn, on the other hand, Sri Lanka has contested 311 tests where they achieved the triumph in 100 matches and faced defeat in 119 matches with 92 tests drawn. So, it would be interesting to watch how Pakistan will perform in the home ground of Sri Lanka in the upcoming SL vs Pak test series 2023.