The hastily arranged series against Sri Lanka is just what Pakistan cricket needs: it quenches their fans' thirst for high-quality cricket, it should ease the board's massive financial problems and will hopefully shift the focus from a spate of controversies surrounding the country's cricket in the past few months (emphasised by the ludicrous situation of the board potentially facing a lawsuit from their own legal advisor).
Both sides enter the contest in impressive ODI form - Sri Lanka have lost only five of their past 20 games, and Pakistan have done even better, winning all but three of the previous 21 matches - but the numbers are significantly boosted by the spate of matches they have played against weak opposition.
As with the build-up to every series since his debut, this one has seen much of the talk centre on mystery spinner, Ajantha Mendis, who recently became the quickest bowler to 50 ODI wickets. The compressed contest, three matches to be played in five days, leaves Pakistan's batsmen little time to reassess their strategy against him during the series. They have prepared to counter his threat by practising on shorter pitches but they aren't the only batting unit entering the series with worries.
Sri Lanka have breached the 200-run mark only once in their last eight games, all of which were against the unthreatening bowling attacks of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Their captain Mahela Jayawardene has demanded improvement from his batsmen and, given the form he is in - averaging 8.33 in his last nine innings - he needs to set the example.
