<\/p>\n
Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s simple,\u201d said Shadab Khan after Pakistan\u2019s last group game, a one-sided encounter with Namibia. \u201cWe just have to keep doing the good things we\u2019ve been doing. Our openers are giving us good starts in almost every match. In bowling, we have to keep hitting the right areas consistently. I think we\u2019re on the right track.\u201d Pakistan have, indeed, done everything that could have been asked of them, except in their one genuinely high-pressure match \u2013 against India \u2013 when they were shambolic<\/a> and outclassed. It\u2019s simple \u2013 they just have to stop doing the bad things they\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n Key player<\/strong> Having played just five times across 2023 and 2024, the spin-bowling all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz has been Pakistan\u2019s best-performing bowler since he returned to the side in the middle of 2025, taking 48 wickets at 14.6. No other Pakistan player has more than 32.<\/p>\n Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/p>\n Sri Lanka lost all three games in their final warmup series against England, started the tournament they are co-hosting by beating Ireland, a match largely determined by the Irish forgetting how to catch, and ended the group stage by being outperformed by Zimbabwe. In the meantime, the seamer Matheesha Pathirana strained a leg muscle and has been ruled out of the tournament, as has the all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga, who pulled a hamstring. None of this makes inspiring reading, and smashing Oman doesn\u2019t really make them stand out either. But then they beat Australia<\/a>, and for all that this Australia team are not the scalp they sometimes are, this was a glimpse of what Sri Lanka could be.<\/p>\n Key player<\/strong> <\/strong>Pathum Nissanka\u2019s 52-ball century against Australia was a near-perfect high-pressure T20 innings, and just the fifth time a Sri Lankan has scored a T20 century. Nissanka also got the previous one, against India last September.<\/p>\n