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India first, Australia second. No, that wasn’t an early prediction for the finals, just simply Sri Lanka’s first two matches at this World Cup. It should only get easier from here but for a Sri Lankan outfit that, despite having played 31 ODIs between the 2022 World Cup and this one, has been crying out for consistent, high-level competition, this upcoming game will lay the most accurate marker yet on their upward trajectory over the past couple of years.Having challenged the hosts India in the tournament opener, they fell short at key moments in that game, perhaps succumbing to the pressure of the occasion. And that pressure will only be cranked up against an imposing Australian outfit, one with so many avenues to hurt you, it’s hard to pinpoint any single weak point that opponents could potentially prey on.For Sri Lanka’s captain Chamari Athapaththu both these matches have come at the right time – at the start of the tournament – and she hopes they will serve as a building block for her side’s ambitions.Related

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“Yes, we’re playing against the two best teams in the first two games, but that’s really good for us,” Athapaththu said ahead of Saturday’s match against Australia in Colombo.”Because then we have some games against teams – like South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan Bangladesh – that we have beaten during the last 12-15 months. So it’s good to start with best teams so that we can prepare well and learn from our mistakes and bounce back.”That resilience to bounce back from setbacks is what has driven this Sri Lankan team over the past couple of years. Between October 2019 and June 2022, they didn’t play a single ODI. Since then, they’ve surged forward, culminating in their T20 Asia Cup title in 2024.Game time has helped, even if parity with the men’s team remains distant. Sri Lanka played 31 WODIs and 61 WT20Is between the 2022 and 2025 World Cups. Still, matches against elite sides like Australia remain rare. Before this tournament, Sri Lanka hadn’t played an international for four months; they prepared with domestic fixtures and games against youth teams.”Everyone knows the Australians are the best team and they have a very experienced side,” Athapaththu said. “In 2019 we played a series against them and I scored a century in Brisbane. After that we never played against Australia because of Covid and some other various reasons. So we missed playing against Australia.”We know we haven’t played international games during the past few months, but we played some domestic cricket. There are things that I cannot control as a captain but I’ll control my bat and ball. Our preparation is good, because we played some games against national youth teams.”Australia’s preparation, meanwhile, has been ideal. They won a hard-fought series in India in September and several of their players have gained exposure to Indian conditions through the WPL. They arrived in Colombo on Thursday afternoon, well in time to recover and prepare for Saturday.”It’s been good, positive vibes,” said opener Phoebe Litchfield when asked about the team’s mood following their journey from Indore. “Woke up this morning, hit the gym, got to the ground and hopefully have some food and get started into training. The commute was fine. It was pretty stock standard but the bodies feel great all around so we’re keen to play tomorrow.”Litchfield struck a 31-ball 45 against New Zealand to set the tone for Australia’s innings in Indore, but with conditions in Colombo unlikely to be as conducive to batting, she knows a more considered approach might be required.”I think we’ll see when we get out there,” Litchfield said. “I’m not going to swing from the limbs first ball. Going to assess conditions, see how it’s playing. And if we think it’s a 300 wicket, it’s a 300 wicket and we’ll play our way. But also know that we might have to adapt depending on the conditions that we face.Litchfield has played just the solitary match against Sri Lanka – a WT20I last year – but Australia know what to expect for the most part.”Their opening bowlers pose a threat but their spin attack is where their work gets done. They’ve got four spinners that are completely different to each other. That’ll probably be the biggest threat to us.”

Big picture

Is the toss still the key to winning a Test match in Pakistan? Pakistan did win the toss in Lahore and used it to establish a position of advantage that South Africa never seriously looked like reining in. But there was enough to suggest it might not have the decisive hold on a game as it did at times during Pakistan’s last home season, with South Africa digging in for long periods with the bat against Pakistan’s spinners, and outscoring Pakistan’s third innings in their final reply.For Pakistan, the win promises to set up a better World Test Championship cycle than the last one, and a win in the second Test in Rawalpindi would get one of their tougher series out of the way and give them a platform to push for a top-two spot in what is a favourable two-year draw.Unusually for them, there has been stability and quiet around the composition of the side. Notably, the only point of selectorial discussion that emerged concerned the captaincy of the ODI team, all but ending Mohammad Rizwan’s brief stint. But in terms of personnel, strategy or game plan, continuity appears to be the keyword as far as this series goes.South Africa’s stand-in captain Aiden Markram refused to put his side’s loss in the first Test down to the toss, choosing instead to focus on controllables. They, in fact, looked solid in adverse circumstances, despite losing the toss and conceding a substantial first-innings lead. England crumbled in similar circumstances last year, but South Africa matched Pakistan toe-to-toe for the second half of the Test.Related

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A similar effort in Rawalpindi could see them pose even sterner questions of Pakistan, especially if they get the opportunity to bat first. Keshav Maharaj’s return changes the equation, too, with the visitors having their most crucial bowler in these conditions available. It potentially allows South Africa to sneak in another quick bowler, with Marco Jansen the likeliest option with his ability to extract bounce and add batting heft to the lower order.South Africa knew what to expect coming into the series, and after the first Test, they will be much better equipped to deal with it. For Pakistan, Lahore was yet more vindication of their turn to these slower tracks; all they are looking for is more of the same.

Form guide

Pakistan WLWLL (last five Tests, most recent first)
South Africa LWWWW

In the spotlight

Pakistan won’t win the toss every game, and Shan Masood has spoken of finding different ways of winning at home. Shaheen Shah Afridi offered a glimpse of how they might go about that, using his ability to reverse swing the ageing ball on a wearing surface. With Hasan Ali not quite up to speed yet, that responsibility is set to fall on Afridi once more. While success for Noman Ali and Sajid Khan is expected, whether Afridi’s electric burst to seal the win in Lahore is repeatable will reveal if there are more dimensions to Pakistan’s Test side than a crackling dusty surface.Keshav Maharaj is back for South Africa•Associated Press

The limelight will fall invariably on Keshav Maharaj, a step up from the spin options South Africa had at their disposal in Lahore. Maharaj was made for this sort of wicket with his ability to use drift as well as the arm ball, and take wickets both with the ones that turn and those that go straight. Combine his skills with the surface he has to work with, and South Africa may find themselves using the spinner on autopilot from one end.

Team news

Masood hinted strongly at satisfaction with the combination Pakistan went with in Lahore. While there is some pressure on Abdullah Shafique, an unchanged unit is the likeliest.Pakistan (probable): 1 Abdullah Shafique, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Shan Masood (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 7 Salman Agha, 8 Noman Ali, 9 Hasan Ali, 10 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 11 Sajid KhanSouth Africa have questions about both personnel and combination. They went with three specialist spinners while opting for Wiaan Mulder as the second seamer, but he ended up bowling just two overs all match. Maharaj will come in for sure, and Jansen could be an option on a Rawalpindi surface that has historically offered some bounce.South Africa (probable): 1 Aiden Markram (capt), 2 Ryan Rickelton, 3 Dewald Brevis, 4 Tony de Zorzi, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Kyle Verreynne (wk), 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Senuran Muthusamy, 10 Simon Harmer, 11 Kagiso Rabada

Pitch and conditions

Rawalpindi is slightly cooler than Lahore, but Pakistan will attempt to prepare the same spin-friendly strip. There haven’t been any of the extreme measures – the fans or wedding-style heaters and tents – that characterised the build-up to the deciding Test against England. It may end up a slightly more balanced strip, though the slower bowlers will remain the primary sources of wickets across the game.

Stats and trivia

• Simon Harmer is eight wickets away from completing 1000 career first-class wickets.
• This is set to be Masood’s 14th Test match as Pakistan’s captain, taking him past Sarfaraz Ahmed and Moin Khan, and tying him with Zaheer Abbas.

Big picture: World Cup planning gets serious (sort of)

And so we reach the final staging post of the England Men’s home international summer. Notwithstanding a beano to Ireland next week, which might be even more weather-challenged than three T20Is against South Africa in the UK in September.Harry Brook is the last man standing, the white-ball captain having played all of England’s 15 games across formats for the season. Ben Duckett and Jamie Smith were due to join him for the last hurrah, before England’s management had a change of heart during the ODIs and opted to give both players a rest. But Brook will have to wait for an opportunity to put his feet up, as he sits out the Ireland trip.Staying on the treadmill is tough enough, never mind keeping track of priorities. This series ought to figure more prominently than the ODIs that preceded it, since there is a T20 World Cup on the horizon – it’s over there, in India and Sri Lanka early next year, just peeking out from behind the Ashes. But England will make do and mend without a first-choice XI in any of their six games over the next 11 days, intent only on getting to the finish line. After which, there’ll be a few weeks off, then back to the grind for a white-ball tour of New Zealand followed by – hello again! – the Ashes in Australia.Related

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• McCullum: England must 'find ways to deal with' packed schedule

Brendon McCullum admitted after the third and final ODI, which England won in record-breaking fashion despite already conceding the series, that they were still getting to grips with easing their multi-format players through a punishing schedule. Throw in the ever-increasing demands of the franchise T20 circuit – and for some of the players involved here, the SA20 auction is the biggest event happening this week – and the balancing act only gets harder.(South Africa’s solution to fixture pile-up has been to programme an entire home season without a Test – although they still have upcoming red-ball commitments in Pakistan and India. Wherever you look, the stresses and strains are apparent.)This will be South Africa’s third T20I engagement in recent months, having toured Australia and Zimbabwe, where they played a tri-series with New Zealand – though some hotchpotch selection means they only won three games (two of them against Zimbabwe) out of eight. They were expecting to welcome back David Miller against England, after allowing him to play the Hundred as a precursor; but a hamstring strain sustained in Northern Superchargers purple means he will instead miss the entire series.There are also question marks over the fitness of Kagiso Rabada, after he sat out the ODI legs in Australia and England with ankle inflammation. Shukri Conrad has said previously that South Africa would be taking a “conservative approach” with Rabada, with T20Is currently higher up the pecking order.All of which means there is an air of uncertainty over proceedings, which are due to commence in Cardiff on Wednesday evening (weather permitting). England will expect a sterner test than that provided by West Indies earlier in the summer, as Brook began his tenure with a 6-0 sweep across formats. South Africa, finalists at the last World Cup, look to be further ahead with their planning – even if it is only three months since Heinrich Klaasen’s sudden retirement left a big hole to fill in their middle order.Both sides will be looking for answers. Don’t be surprised if the series only throws up more questions.

Form guide

England WWWLL (last five T20Is, most recent first)
South Africa LWLLL

In the spotlight: Sam Curran and Dewald Brevis

Is the Bazball revolution big enough to include Sam Curran? We may be about to find out. Having seemingly been cast as someone who did not “fit the mould” of what McCullum was after with the Test side, he slipped down the pecking order in white-ball cricket, too, last playing in the Caribbean at the back end of 2024. That was under the guidance of an interim coach in Marcus Trescothick, so this will be Curran’s first chance to impress McCullum, who took charge across formats at the start of the year. If he can continue his good form from the Hundred and T20 Blast, and Make Things Happen in the manner of his first coming in international cricket, he could soon offer a solution to some of England’s ODI problems, too.Sam Curran was back in the England set-up•Getty Images

It is now more than three years since Dewald Brevis, South Africa’s “Baby AB”, burst into public consciousness by earning an IPL deal before having even played a first-class game. But until June of this year, his only mark on international cricket were innings of 5 and 0 in two T20Is against Australia back in 2023. A fifty on Test debut in Zimbabwe augured well, but the full range of his abilities shone through in remote Darwin last month as he smoked South Africa’s highest T20 international score – 125 not out off 56 balls – and second-fastest hundred, in only his ninth innings. That innings, no doubt, contributed to Brevis being the No. 1 draw at Tuesday’s SA20 auction, where he went past his captain, Aiden Markram, as the tournament’s most-expensive ever signing at R16.5 million (US$940,000). The spotlight won’t be going elsewhere for a while.

Team news: Miller ruled out of series

England named their team a day in advance, with Jos Buttler moving back up to open in the absences of Smith and Duckett. He is reunited with Phil Salt, who missed the West Indies series on paternity leave. Tom Banton and Will Jacks, both T20 openers by trade, are carded down at Nos. 6 and 7, with Curran a place above. He will be one of three pace-bowling options, alongside Jamie Overton and Jofra Archer, with four spinners – Jacks, Jacob Bethell, Liam Dawson and Adil Rashid – also at Brook’s disposal.England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Sam Curran, 6 Tom Banton, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Liam Dawson, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Adil RashidSouth Africa have opted not to call up a replacement for Miller, whose absence is likely to open up a spot for Donovan Ferreira – Oval Invincibles’ “heater” – to play just his seventh T20I and first since December. Keshav Maharaj returns as the frontline spin option after missing the two previous series, while Marco Jansen is set for his first appearance since the World Test Championship final in June after suffering thumb surgery. If Rabada is being kept in cotton wool, then 19-year-old quick Kwena Maphaka is primed to take his place.South Africa: (Possible) 1 Aiden Markram (capt), 2 Ryan Rickleton (wk), 3 Lhuan-dre Pretorius, 4 Dewald Brevis, 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Donovan Ferreira, 7 Marco Jansen, 8 Corbin Bosch, 9 Keshav Maharaj, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Lungi Ngidi

Pitch and conditions: Seamers bang it in

Cardiff can be a tough place to bowl spin, because of the short straight boundaries – and will prove a challenge if England stick to their World Cup-orientated strategy of packing in the slow-bowling options. The surface was green a day out, but is expected to get a trim. However, a forecast for steady rain through the next 24 hours, and potentially on into the evening, might render such concerns moot.

Stats and trivia

• South Africa have won four of their last five T20Is against England, which includes victories at the 2021 and 2024 World Cups and a 2-1 bilateral series success in 2022.
• The trip three years ago saw South Africa win comfortably in Cardiff, by 58 runs – although only four members of that side (Stubbs, Maharaj, Rabada and Ngidi) are involved this time around.
• Brook led England to a 3-0 whitewash of West Indies in his first outing as T20I captain. In all T20, he has captained 23 times – with England, Yorkshire and Northern Superchargers – and been victorious in 15 for a win/loss ratio of 2.50.
• Barring washouts, Brook will win his 50th T20I cap in the third game of the series at Trent Bridge.

Quotes

“We’ve got to make sure we do what we do as a team. We’re not too concerned about putting a statement out for others to see. It’s for our own selves, making sure we are true to our own selves cricket wise – batting, bowling, fielding – and letting our cricket do the rest. Hopefully we can put a show on.”
“They are always a good team. Expecting it to be a really good challenge for us. They’ve won heaps of white-ball tournaments and were the trendsetters at one stage. Looking forward to facing them and the strengths that they bring to the table, and seeing where we are as a team against really good opposition.”

Netherlands will play their first bilateral series in Bangladesh when they arrive in the country later this month for three T20Is. The series will give Bangladesh some competitive cricket leading up to the Asia Cup, which begins on September 9.Netherlands will land in Dhaka on August 26 before heading to Sylhet, where they will train for three days before the first T20I on August 30. The second and third T20Is are also in Sylhet, on September 1 and 3. All three matches will start at 6.00pm local time.The BCB arranged the Netherlands series after India postponed their tour to Bangladesh, which was to feature three ODIs and three T20Is from August 17 to 31. It had left Bangladesh with a month of no international cricket before the Asia Cup. Initially, the BCB were also in talks with the Nepal board.Netherlands have played in Bangladesh once before, in the 2014 T20 World Cup where they won a memorable game against Ireland to confirm their progress to the main round.Bangladesh and Netherlands have played only five T20Is against each other, with Bangladesh winning four of them. In 2012, Netherlands had hosted Bangladesh for two T20Is, their only bilateral series against them before the upcoming tour.