Men's ODI WC: Sri Lanka spinner Maheesh Theekshana likely to return for Pakistan clash

HYDERABAD: Sri Lanka spinner Maheesh Theekshana is likely to feature in the playing XI for their second World Cup game, against Pakistan on Tuesday, assistant coach Naveed Nawaz said on the eve of the match.

Theekshana, who sustained a hamstring injury during Asia Cup, joined the Sri Lankan 2023 World Cup squad last week and had missed their tournament opener against South Africa, which Sri Lanka suffered a huge 102-run defeat, as he was still recovering from a hamstring strain sustained during the Asia Cup.

"He's fit and should play tomorrow. Didn't want to risk him in the first game against medical advice but he should be ready here," Nawaz said in the Pre-match press Conference on Monday, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo

After their loss to South Africa in Delhi, the Sri Lankan team had a 12-hour flight to Hyderabad for their next match. Nawaz expects they'll encounter similar batting-friendly pitches and stressed the significance of executing their strategies well and gleaning lessons from each match.

"It's simple, we expect to face similar pitches. They're not going to change; it will mostly be batting-friendly. We have to look at our execution and see how we could've pulled back another 50-60 runs. We have to keep the group positive, that is most important.

"It's a long tournament, we're going to be playing, traveling and doing other things for over a month. We just have to take the learnings from each game and move forward," he said.