RAWALPINDI — Opening batter Tayyab Arif and Mohammad Taha made impressive debuts as a new-look Pakistan side drove to 281 for 5 on the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
Sri Lanka’s captain, Kusal Mendis, won the toss and chose to bowl on a greenish wicket, a decision that looked questionable by lunch. Arif, 20 years old and playing his first Test, attacked from the start and made 57 off 51 balls, reaching his fifty in 46 balls. He and Azan Awais, who made 30, put on 86 for the first wicket, and Pakistan reached 137 for 2 in the first session.
Sri Lanka recovered in the middle of the day. Captain Babar Azam played the innings of the afternoon, a fluent 50 off 58 balls with seven fours, before falling with the score at 159. Taha, batting at number three in his first Test, showed the opposite quality: patience. His 51 came off 105 deliveries and held the innings together while wickets fell at the other end.
Salman Ali Agha made 16, and the close belonged to Saud Shakeel, whose unbeaten 57 off 112 balls, with seven boundaries, carried Pakistan past 280. Wicketkeeper Ghazi Ghori was with him on 7 not out when bad light stopped play after 67.2 overs, well short of a full day’s 90.
For Sri Lanka, Asitha Fernando took two wickets, and Dilshan Madushanka, Milan Rathnayake and Sonal Dinusha took one each. The fall of wickets ran 86, 90, 159, 227 and 253, a scorecard that tells the day’s shape: a fast start, a wobble, and a steady finish.
Why it matters: Pakistan have rebuilt their Test side around young batters, and day one was the first evidence of what that looks like. Two debutants passing fifty in their first innings, on a pitch with something in it for the bowlers, is the strongest start the selectors could reasonably have asked for. The caution is that 281 for 5 is a platform, not a position of safety. Sri Lanka’s bowlers took three wickets in the evening session, and a collapse on Tuesday morning would hand the advantage straight back.
What happens next: play resumes on Tuesday with Shakeel and Ghori at the crease and five wickets in hand. Pakistan will want 400. Sri Lanka will want the new ball to talk early. The second and final Test of the series begins in Lahore on November 17. Source: Associated Press match report and the official scorecard, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, November 9, 2026.
