Pakistan vs Sri Lanka - Major Personal Milestones Around the Corner
Pakistan vs Sri Lanka has become an all too familiar sight for the cricket watching public. This is Pakistan's third visit to the Island for a full tour in the past 4 years. To put it into context, Pakistan has not toured Australia, England, New Zealand, or the West Indies during this period. Moreover, Pakistan has also played Sri Lanka in the UAE twice during this time, making this the 5th test series between the two sides since October 2011.
During this period, the two teams have played 11 tests with Sri Lanka holding a slight edge with 4 wins to Pakistan's 2. Both of Pakistan's wins have come in the UAE. In fact, it has been 9 years since Pakistan won a test match in Sri Lanka; that was the last time that Pakistan won a test series in the Island as well.
Besides turning around their test performance in Sri Lanka, Pakistan's test cricketers will also be eyeing some personal achievements during this test series.
YOUNIS KHAN
Pakistan's absolute test legend will play his 100th test during this series, fitness permitting of course. This will be a significant feather in his cap making him only the 5th player from Pakistan to play 100 tests (the others are Javed Miandad, Inzamam Ul Haq, Wasim Akram, and Salim Malik).
Younis Khan also has some more achievements to look forward to. He needs only 286 runs to go past Javed Miandad and become Pakistan's leading run scorer in test cricket; only 453 runs to become the first Pakistani to score 9,000 test runs; only 1 century to become the first Pakistani batsman to hit 30 test centuries.
Given the form Younis has been in recently, there is every likelihood that he will achieve all these feats during the upcoming 3-test series against Sri Lanka.
AHMED SHEHZAD
Pakistan's talented young opener has had a fabulous start to his test career scoring 718 runs, including 3 centuries, in only 15 test innings. He needs another 282 runs to reach a 1,000 test runs and he has the opportunity to create a Pakistan record of becoming the fastest batsman to reach 1,000 test runs. The record right now is held by Saeed Ahmed who required 20 innings to complete 1,000 test runs.
Shehzad is also in the running for a Pakistan record in terms of time required to score 1,000 test runs. Having made his test debut on 31st December 2013, it had been 1 year and 164 days since his test debut. The Pakistani selectors denied him a good opportunity to create this record by unfairly dropping him from the test squad against Bangladesh, but good on them to correct this mistake and bring the talented opener back into the fold.