Test Match Special - Asia Cup: Pakistan play (eventually) & Sri Lanka kick on to Super 4s

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Nikesh Rughani and Aatif Nawaz discuss all the latest stories from the 2025 Asia Cup. They discuss the further drama around Pakistan which saw them play their final group match against the UAE, despite the fixture looking in jeopardy following on from the handshake incident after their fixture against India.Plus, Mark Machado joins them to discuss Sri Lanka’s strength in depth as they qualify for the Super 4s stage of the competition.

You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Hello, I'm Nick Eshrigani. Welcome to the TMS podcast, where we're once again talking all things Asia Cup. And it hasn't been the quietest of weeks in the competition. Joining me, as always, is fellow TMS commentator Arthif Nawaz. Artif, how are you? Yeah, very well, Nick. We have to start with the big news this week. And unfortunately, once again, it has very little to do with what happened on the pitch. I'm, of course, talking about the Pakistan cricket team

threatening to pull out of the competition. Now, this was all to do with handshake gait, as it's been come to known, during and after that match with India. The Indian players refused to shake hands with the Pakistani players and staff. The PCB said match referee Andy Pyecroft had also instructed Captain Salman Agar not to attempt a handshake at the toss, and they wanted Pyecroft removed from the competition. Well, that didn't happen.

So on the day of their group game against the UAE, the team didn't travel to the ground on time, didn't leave the hotel, they were considering pulling out of the competition. The UAE team did travel to the ground as normal. They were training, they were going through all their pre-match routines. And then Pakistan decided they will still play in the Asia Cup and they left the hotel, but lo and behold, they got stuck in traffic in Dubai. The PCB claims there then was an apology issued by Andy Pyecroft, but sources close to the situation. claim that it wasn't an apology, but an expression of regret over the misunderstanding and miscommunication around the incident from the India game. The match did take place in the end, Arta. We'll get into that in a moment. But where do we start on this? I mean, it's a bit of a

PR disaster for the Pakistan Cricket Board, isn't it? Yeah, it is really because I think the situation sort of spiraled away from them a little bit. I think they were, you know, the sort of cricketing world had a lot of sympathy with Baghistan, I think, in that sort of handshake situation. But I think this time around sort of holding the game to ransom, making this, sort of taking this stand that we're not going to play this game if Mr. Pycroft is officiating and then sort of abandoning that stance very quickly. They claim they have the apology, the ICC have said, expression of regret. I don't know why the wording is so important.

We're talking apology versus expression of regret. Like, you know, it's like a distinction and it's such a bizarre little pay. power play. Really, it was frustrating because I think ultimately what Pakistan cricket fans wanted was to watch a game of cricket. It was delayed by an hour. And again, just for clarity, that hour was sort of agreed upon by everybody so they could, you know, make the game happen, which they did. So credit to everybody involved for making sure the game happened and Pakistan continued to participate. But yeah, it just, it was a bit, it was just, I think you summed it up perfectly. It was a PR nightmare for Pakistan. The good news is they did play

the game. They won their game. So we'll have another India versus Pakistan match, look forward to very very soon. Yeah, we will. That will take place on Sunday in the super fours. I mean, in terms of pulling out of the competition, Pakistan, there could have been big financial implications. Were they to do so? Of course, TV rights shared among the nations who are playing in Pakistan,

potentially would have been left out of that, and there could have been other financial implications too. So you don't know if anything like that came into their thinking. What did you make of the video that the PCB released? because it was really bizarre. They released a video claiming that Mr. Pyecroft had apologized to the Pakistan team

and they put it out there and nobody sort of refuted it immediately and then later on the ICC said sort of expression of regret. I mean, it's so semantic. But anyway, like it was bizarre because they put the video out. There was no sound on it.

There were loads of people wildly gesticulating in the video and it just left it even further all open for interpretation. I mean, for me, if somebody, if you're expecting an apology, you're presumably expecting a public apology so you have it very clearly on the record

somebody apologising for what's happened but what we actually heard was a sequence of reasons again there's sort of various news sources at play so it's hard to know what's what but what we have seen is a video clip which has no sound which Pakistan contends includes an apology and the ICC says contends an expression of regret

so I mean I think that's pretty much the definition of splitting his but that's where we are I mean that's even you know it makes the PR disaster even worse, doesn't it? Putting out a video saying that there's an apology taking place and there's no sound to that video. I don't know who took the video. I don't know why it was allowed because presumably this would have been a private conversation. And if the reports are to be believed around the India game and Andy Prycroft suggesting Salmanaga that indeed he wasn't to shake hands with

Surukhomari Adav or attempt to handshake with him at the toss, allegedly, Bukestan cricket board claim that Andy Pycroft handed his microphone to the Pakistan media manager. He didn't want to be on record. He didn't want to be recorded. He didn't want it leaked anywhere exactly what he was going to be saying to Salman Aga. Those are the allegations. So you wonder why he would then allow the filming to take place. So it all seems very bizarre at the moment. And even more bizarre when you consider that, yes, the ICC provide the officials. And Andy Puycroft is the match referee involved in this incident. But the ACC, the Asian Cricket Council is currently run by the head of Pakistan cricket. So there's a power struggle

somewhere and, you know, this whole saga, I guess, will continue. It will. And the sad thing is it's sort of distracted from, again, distracted from what's happening on the pitch. I mean, Handshakee, we didn't really, we obviously, we did talk about it, but generally the conversation whereas it wasn't about sort of India's brilliant performance. Again, Pakistan, I thought, you know, put in an intriguing performance against the UAE that day. You sort of feel for the players as well being told to stay in their rooms. Then you've got to go to the ground and you're stuck in traffic and you've got this sort of truncated warm-up routine before the match starts. And then you have to go and perform, right?

And they certainly didn't perform to their potential. They did enough to win the game and win it reasonably convincingly in the end. But there were certainly a few hiccups along the way. You just have to wonder if all the stuff that's happening off the field is further impacting their ability to execute on the field. But I guess the headline is they made it through and four of the best teams, four of the five best teams have made it to the super force. Yeah, absolutely. Baghstan beating the UAE by 41 runs. Shaheen Shah-Fridi taking a couple of wickets and continuing his good batting form too, hitting 29 off just 14 with the Willow.

in hand. In terms of positives, then Artif, going into the super fours for Pakistan, what do you take? Well, I mean, there's a lot of, there's more worries than there are positives. As you mentioned, Shaheen, if really, again, a sort of surprise with the bat, sort of a revelation, really, with the bat, because when he sort of first burst on the scene, there were a sort of expectation that he might be a sort of wazimakram-esque all-rounder for Pakistan at some stage in the future, but that didn't really materialise. Now, every now and again, he gives you a little glimpse and obviously he can hit the ball a long way. But it's sort of bizarre because he did get a couple of wickets,

but really the role that he's there to perform is to take early wickets for Pakistan. Saima Yub, who's currently Pakistan's top wicket taker in the competition, he's taken more wickets than he has faced balls in this Asia Cup so far. He's been dismissed for three ducks in a row. And he's, you know, he's really, really struggling. Now, this is a player that's come in with a lot of hype. I remember Michael Warn, he was talking about how highly he rates Siamerub

and how much potential he has as a player, but he's really sort of falling to pieces at the moment with the bat, bizarrely performing a role with the ball. So, again, it just sort of points to a little bit of a lack of clarity, perhaps, in the team where sort of Shaheen is having to cover the batting end of things, and Syme Ayub is covering the bowling end of things, and he bowled really well in the power play, to be fair to him, but it's not really the gig.

So, yeah, it is going to take a little bit of, I mean, it's very hard to see Pakistan coming close, to beating India at the moment on the back of that performance. They got out of jail, I would say, against UAE, because they bowled really well. The UAE bowlers really pushed Pakistan really hard, and they took it, you know, if they just held

on at the death, I think they would have gotten away with a lower total, which may have been significantly easier to chase, but I think Pakistan just had enough to hold them off. But in terms of positives, it's pretty slim pickings, if I'm honest. The bowlers, again, you know, the bail, the batters out.

How often can you do that and can you do that against a team as mighty as India on Sunday? We'll wait and see. Yeah, so India, of course, through to the Super 4s as well with a match to spare. And joining them, Bangladesh and also Sri Lanka, who booked their spot in the Super 4s after beating Afghanistan by six wickets. And joining us now is Broadcaster and Morally End podcaster Mark Machado. Welcome, Mark. Hi, Nickash. Hi, hi, Arif.

Thank you for having me. So Mark, Sri Lanka, through to the Super 4s then. and you've set up immediately another clash with, I guess, Sri Lanka's newest rivals. Can you call them new rivals now, Bangladesh? It's a pretty fierce rivalry. I mean, it's probably more intense than Indian Pakistan has been over the last few years. The nagging dance derby, the snake dance derby, as it's been come to known. I absolutely love this derby.

I love what's happened with it. I mean, in a world where we constantly be told people don't care about bilateral, people don't care about, you know, games that don't involve their teams. Suddenly, and it's essentially only happened because Sri Lanka played Bangladesh so much. There is a lot of needle in this game. There was a weird situation yesterday when Sri Lanka were playing in Afghanistan where Bangladesh fans had to start cheering for Sri Lanka because they needed Sri Lanka to win to get through.

I'm like sadly Shaquib and Angelo Matthews who were the kind of two players who were at the kind of forefront of this rivalry are no longer involved in their national sides T20 setups at the moment so they won't be there but they're still

a lot going on and what you know unexpectedly I've got to turn up on a podcast and say nice things about Bangladesh cricket but actually they've improved quite a bit and become quite competitive in recent years I think particularly around

this fixture because there is so much needle in it now they've got some youngsters coming through like Ridoy and some spinners who've caused me

endless sleepless nights and I think I think this will be the fifth time we've played them in about five weeks but I'm looking forward to it

I mean every time the states get higher and higher and this for me is going to be quite a critical game in terms of Shluck qualified for the final. Yeah, I mean, it certainly will.

But let's talk about the performance against Afghanistan a little bit, because that was a huge game. All three teams still able to qualify from that group of death. They had a significantly more difficult group. I mean, one of them has Indian-Baghistan in it, but this one has three test-playing nations in it, all vying for a spot. Afghanistan, ahead of the tournament, you know,

sort of being built up on social media as the second best team in Asia. But they're not even going to make the last four of the, Cup, but it was a really exciting, a really close game. And I felt like Sri Lanka really showed some steel to close out that match against Afghanistan and they've wanted spin line up. Yeah, so in Murieland, what we've been talking about in the last kind of 18 months or so is actually, we reckon we've got the talent. There's a lot of cricket players in Sri Lanka. They'll always produce good players and players that should be able to do things at kind of

the top, top level. The thing that we wanted to see was that steel, was that mentality, was When things are going well for Sri Lanka, like we can get a job done and we beat the teams that people should expect us to beat. The problem is, is when things start to go badly. Yesterday, there was a really odd situation happened where Dilith Walalaga, who was the left-hand all-round spinner, was brought into the side mainly because

the idea was, as Afghanistan have a lot of right-handers and they struggled a bit against Bangladesh's left-hand spin a couple of days before. Dunneth ends up having to bowl the last over and there's a debate amongst Sri Lanka fans and how that happened and what the thought process was to that. Mohammed Nabby's batting

probably one of the best hitters of spin in this tournament and he gets five sixes in that over and kind of I thought right he's taking the game away and we need to talk a little bit about Dilith Malaga because he got some terrible news as soon as the match

finished that his father had died but I thought at that moment after that over being the last over for the game Afghanistan got 169 I was like that's the kind of play that's the kind of moment in the match

that a year or so ago would have taken the game totally away from Strunker and their heads would have gone and they wouldn't have been able to get themselves back into it however they came out and batted

and hadn't lost their minds they lost an early wicket in fact they lost a couple of early wickets when they were batted and they were still able to rebuild and as a Strunker fan that gives me so much pleasure to watch that

because it's that that mental strength, that toughness is started to show itself a little bit, which I wasn't entirely sure we had. But we saw it a few weeks ago with Aeroon Zimbabwe, and we saw it yesterday as well. And I guess from a Sri Lanka fan's point of view, and probably the same with Bangladesh, you see yourselves in the super fours with India versus Pakistan. There's been, you know, lots said, hasn't there, about the Asia Cup,

the relevance of the Asia Cup, is it just another opportunity to stage India versus Pakistan matches and make loads of money. Well, that's probably partly true, given the fact that, you know, the rest of the world isn't that interested in the Asia Cup. It's, you know, it's sometimes been seen as a competition, certainly by India, where they would send a week aside and, you know, some of senior players are rested. This is still a great opportunity, though, for Sri Lanka or Bangladesh to disrupt the party, isn't it? And Sri Lanka have done that more than any other side in the history of the Asia Cup. They've won six titles. Pakistan have only won a couple of of times. And those have both been post-2000, which when you look at the side that they had in

the 80s and the 90s, they should have won a lot more titles. But it's India at the top there with eight titles. Sri Lanka with six and then Pakistan with two. Nobody else has yet lifted the Asia Cup. But another opportunity here for both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to disrupt that party and get through to the final. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Sri Lanka cricket knows it's kind of place in the cricket ecosystem, right? 24 million people. It's a smaller economy, it doesn't kind of dictate large TV rights. It relies on these

tournaments to kind of make money. In Sri Lanka cricket what they all tell you is they can't control the teams that India decide to send out or, you know, or how other sides are playing. The Asia Cup is a massive thing for Sri Lanka, not just for the players, but for the fans as well, the people

love it. There's loads of talk about it online. They've enjoyed, you know, we've had some great successes, kind of against the odds, right? You know, Obviously, every team in South Asia has had economic and political issues on some level. But Sri Lanka, you know, Sri Lanka's won World Cup, but they've been in the midst of a civil war. Our cricket culture is off resilience. And it's also off kind of building, winning teams when everything else in the island is kind of falling apart.

So all, and I think that the other massive huge benefit Sri Lanka has when they come to this tournament and India and Pakistan are there, is that they will always be the underdogs. and actually they thrive in being underdogs is when you've got a situation where there's a South Africa or New Zealand or Australia turning it up to Goal to play to play games and suddenly and people are like

well actually Sri Lanka goal is quite difficult when people start talking about Sri Lankan Equal as an equal team I think sometimes that starts messing with the team psychology when you come in as an underdog and you've got something to prove and you've got a history of the tournament

and that's why I think we've really being there. We'll pick up this conversation shortly. Make sure you'll subscribe, though, to the TMS podcast on BBC Sound, so you get notified every time we upload a new episode, including No Balls, the Cricket Podcast, with Kate Cross and Alex Hartley.

The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. You mentioned Donit Bola Lage there as well, and, you know, you've got some heartbreaking news during the match. I think he came off the field and learned that his father had passed away from a sudden heart attack, of course, all of our condolences with Duneth and his family and with all of his fans, of course, as well. But that's a huge loss for Sri Lanka, who's, I mean, he's presumably going to play no further part quite understandably in the Asia Cup.

What's that going to do to the makeup of the team? Is there going to be somebody else drafted in to replace him? Yeah, so he did go home. He flew back to Colombo after hearing the news. totally understandably so at the moment I think there is some what Shrunk have got now

which they've almost never had is they've got kind of a lot of depth in bowlers traditionally if you go back to look at the kind of glory days of the mid 2000s you kind of felt those maybe like 12 or 13

good players for Shulangor or players you could do a job at this level suddenly and you know I'm very grateful to the IPL because they've you know various IPL teams has done a lot to nurture some of our younger talent.

Suddenly, there's actually quite a lot of depth. At the moment, we've been playing a kind of seven-four split. Willa-Gay yesterday came in as an all-rounder. He didn't need to bat, which is, you know, I'm grateful off. But I do think losing him kind of can, in some ways, misbalanced the team. He didn't play in the first two games, though. So I think if they're looking for the over, teaching them will come back into the side.

if they're looking for for the batting which in my opinion actually if you get 20 good if you can bowl 20 good overs and really you should be prepared to bowl 25 good overs because one bono will have a bad day

then you maybe don't need I think you should plan that you don't need to bat as deep but if they're looking for a bat for a batting option they might call up Jeffrey van der Sey back into the squad even though he's in Sri Lanka at the moment

or they might go with Deschantamanta who is, again, he's back home, but he might be called up. Or I suspect they won't call anyone up and we'll just go with the extra bowler, though. But we do have options, which, you know, obviously it's tragic that Dennis Mulalaga had to go home. But, you know, I wake up every morning and I'm grateful that it's not just kind of three bowlers and we're done. We've got depth of variety, which I'm not used to have it. Yeah, there certainly are a few options there for Sri Lanka.

Now, we talked about Sri Lanka versus Bangladesh. That's the first fixture in the Super Fours on Saturday. And then the sort of crossover between the two groups happens post the weekend, post that India-Bakistan match. On Tuesday, Pakistan take on Sri Lanka mark. Firstly, how do you tackle Pakistan? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? What will Sri Lanka be looking to exploit?

And then I guess the big one, if you talk about the favourites for the Asia Cup, they take on India on Friday. same question there. How do you cope with India's spin attack, I guess? So for me, for against Pakistan, the thing I'll be trying to do is basically go as Sri Lankan as you possibly can. We're post-Lassath Malinga, but his spirit lives among the team. When you play Sri Lanka now, it's like entering the Malingaverse. You can play against two possible slingers. We've got new and Theshire, slinging the ball down for you in the early part of the innings. And I would go with Patherana to kind of close. off. I'm not sure how much

sling the Pakistani players would have played against. I know there is slingers in the Pakistan set up as well. But I think if you're batting hasn't been overly confident which I haven't seen for Pakistan recently I think having that extra variation

almost regardless of you know what else happened starts to put doubt in your mind as well Newman Thisher has been super effective at the beginning of an innings if he could get a few a few wickets early on, two or three wickets.

If we get three wickets of the power play, I'm confident that we'll get a win. And I think he's the guy that can get wickets early. Chimera will also bowl alongside him. I'm confident

that I'm more worried about Pakistan's bowling than they're batting. But I think our batting is starting to show signs of fluency. So I'm confident that I just want Shlunk to go out there, be Shlunk and put

a good performance and not lose themselves into the moment of playing quite, you know, a massive side in a massive game in a big tournament. You've got to watch out for Saim Ayub in those power playovers. He's been Pakistan's biggest threat so far, isn't he?

I'd think of you jest, you jest, but it's not a bad option, is it? Look, in these conditions to open with a spinner in the power play, Do you think Pakistan are going to go that way throughout the Super Fours as well? Yeah, almost certainly. I think they'll keep going with that. They did experiment in the UAE game with an extra seamer and dropping Sufjohn Mukim.

But, I mean, Simon, we sort of joke about it. But he's taken six wickets in his three matches, and he's averaging 10, which is not bad with the ball at all. You know, so you know, you never know. The Asia Cup makes stars. I didn't think Moin Ali would become one of England's leading frontline spinners, and he did. I think the way Pakistan sort of look at him, or certainly Mike Heson looks at Siam Biyub is like a modern-day Muhammad Hafiz who would bowl in a power play

and also get you some quick runs at the top of the order. It's not his principal gig, taking the wickets, but if he's getting you them, why not? At the moment, I think he's either level, oh, he's won ahead of Nuantasara as well, who's Sri Lanka's top wicket taker at the moment in the competition with five. He took those four wickets against Afghanistan, outstanding performance. So, yeah, in terms of a matchup, I think just like Mark says, they could well catch Pakistan off guard.

Pakistan have just about got over the line with the Oman and the UAE. We'll see how they get on with India on Sunday. But I think right now they're sort of almost ripe for the taking. So it could just work out quite heavily in Sri Lanka's favour. Yeah, you look at the top wicket takers in the competition. He's only one behind Gouldee. the other from India and then Junaid Sadiq ahead on nine wickets, so three more than Siamov, a couple more than Junaid Sadiq, rather. Batam Nisanka, top run scorer in the

competition as well, Mark. How key is somebody like a Batam Nisanka with all the experience that he's got as well of steering Sri Lanka through some likely difficult moments in the super fours? It's funny you say experience because I still think of him as quite young and he's and early in his careers, he's 27. He's been around basically since cricket restarted since COVID. He's absolutely superb. England fans will remember him from his century at the Oval in the final test last summer. He's turning into the kind of all-format batter that I was really worried Sri Lanka cricket

wouldn't be able to produce. Started the first two games incredibly well. Yesterday against Afghanistan, he did. did get out early. I did have some worries but, you know, the key

for Sri Lanka is with the bat is that one of the two openers has got to get runs. So Patum or he bounced with Cus Mendus

at the top in T20. One of those two is if they get runs then we're in a good place. Patum gets really, really

angry about getting out. And the thing I see with him that gives me great hope is I kind of almost feel like he doesn't get out the same way more than two or three times

so you won't any obvious weakness he seems to go away and work on the way he scored runs over the years has changed his strike rate has improved

quite a bit since he first started as well he's a great little player I would love I want him to have a really good enter this tournament because I'd love to see him get big T20 contracts around

world which he hasn't quite done yet, but I think he totally deserves it. Just like, he's worth a punt just for his sheer mentality, right? Because you know if you bring him into a squad, he's going to figure out pretty quickly why he's not in 11 if he isn't, and then he's going to improve as well.

So I just think that kind of player is totally invaluable. I've talked about Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Obviously, India remain favourites going into these super fours to win a ninth Asia Cup title. They've got the batting power, haven't they, at the top, with the likes of Abyshek Sharma, leading the way Surukh Maryath, the captain, just outstanding in this format. But it's been their spin trio, really, that has been running through sides. Koldip Yadav in particular, like we mentioned there, Akshar Patel,

even the likes of Shivam Dubei shipping in with a wicked or two here and there. And of course, Jasbik Bhumra will always be a threat in this competition. I see them, obviously, going to the final. I'm kind of leaning towards Sri Lanka at the moment because you look at Pakistan's problems right now, Artif, and I'm going to put this to you, they look vulnerable. Bangladesh never quite seemed to get over the line. They've got some good young, talented players coming through,

but they've lost a bit of experience in recent times in their white ball formats. I can see an India versus Sri Lanka final. Do you see it any other way, Artif? I do see it a different way. I think there's what Pakistan has in this. their favour is scheduling. I think getting that India game out of the way early will help them immensely because it'll make it crystal clear what they need to do. It's almost like a free hit for Pakistan, that India game. Nobody's sort of expecting them to win it so they can go

out there and try and have a go at it and then know that they'll have a competitive game probably likely against Sri Lanka and a competitive game against Bangladesh. I think, you know, most days they would back themselves to be Bangladesh, even though Bangladesh did win a series against Pakistan recently, a T20 international series. And you know, just Sri Lanka still has that sort of mystery component to it for Pakistan because they don't play them as often. There was a time where they were playing

like every other day, it felt like, but they haven't played a lot recently. There was, you know, like every Mendes in Sri Lanka was well known in Pakistan for a while. But yeah, I think, you know, when you look at India, again, as you say, total favourites, but there is, like, if you were

really digging, if you, if your editor said to you, come on, I need something for the weakness column for India, and he were digging and he were looking for something. I'd point to the fact that maybe they're a little bit under-exposed, like some of the players just haven't spent time out in the middle doing what they're there to do. Obviously, the bowlers have, but Sanju-Sampson's just been a tourist that he's just been enjoying Dubai Mall and and the Mall of the Emirates and all that kind of stuff while he's been out there playing paddle probably. But he hasn't had a bat yet in the position that he's been set for. That could change

by the time, you know, we finished recording and they play against Oman. But let's face it, it's unlikely So the fact that they haven't really been pushed hard yet It would just be a scenario that's slightly unfamiliar to them I think at least in this Asia Cup And at that point you never know what can happen So I mean in terms of final I'm still going to call it an India-Baghistan final I'm going to go with what I think is the most obvious thing But you know listen Sri Lanka's an outstanding team as is Bangladesh

They've both got the kind of players that can take out Pakistan That have taken out Pakistan that have taken out India. So you never know what that final will be, but I think the smart money will probably be on an India-Bakistan one again. I'm sure the people who sell TV adverts will be very happy to hear you say that. Mark, I'm sure you see it a slightly different way.

And I'd have mentioned there the lack of familiarity really between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Of course, some of the Sri Lankans do play in the IPL, so there is that familiarity. But they haven't sort of really had as many series. in recent times as they used to. I mean, it used to be the done thing, didn't it? In South Asia, if either India or Pakistan have got a couple of months spare, they'd go and tour Sri Lanka or invite Sri Lanka over.

But that doesn't seem to be the case quite as much anymore. Do you think you can maybe see some surprises being sprung by Sri Lanka in this Super Four stage? Yeah, I think actually, I think Sri Lanka are due to go over to Pakistan in November. Though, you know, with Sri Lanka cricket and Pakistan cricket, things change a lot. for some white ball games. And there's a tri-series as well. Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan Tri-Series, which I'm excited about.

The return of the Tri-Series is a good thing that's happening in cricket. So for me, I think, again, you know, artists in Pakistan have been done a favour by the scheduling. I think Sri Lanka have the inverse of that because they've got to play Bangladesh first, which I know will be competitive. Then that Pakistan game kind of mid-week is going to be potentially for both those sides

is going to be you know do or die at that moment and then we play India on Friday and then potentially the final on Sunday for me I think we've definitely got enough in us to beat Bangladesh Pakistan even though that's not a given we've got to

put a good performance in and figure it out when we get there I think against India though I think the thing I've got is that I kind of feel at this point India haven't been tested that much and they're slightly undercutt I think India are by find a way a much more talented side than Sri Lanka have. I think though with Sri Lanka's kind of talent and its wideness, we could have one win against India in us. We could do it. We could

do it. For Sri Lanka cricket and in some ways it kind of reflective of all Sri Lankans at any given point anywhere, it's always about just trying to get to the next level. Just try and get to the next place. Don't worry about what's going to happen in the Super Falls. Just try and get to the super falls. With the Super Falls now, the next question is, Just try and get to the final. Don't worry about the final. Just get to the final. The thing that gives me some hope

and what I think maybe might be able to beat them is because what I see for this team is they learn for their mistakes pretty quickly. We're playing India on Friday. If we have to play India on Friday and then if we are in the final on Sunday, then we'll have had a look at them. I mean, obviously they'd have had a look at us as well.

But we might be able to put something in place by the Sunday. India aren't expecting. I hope, I pray. We shall wait and see. Look, what would happen if India weren't to make the final? That would be an interesting thing to happen. I certainly don't think there is invincible as people are saying, certainly the strongest side in the competition,

but on any given day, they can well be beaten. We shall wait and see an exciting Super Four stage awaits us, but that's all we've got time for today. My thanks to Arthif Nawaz and to Mark Machado. sure you're subscribed on BBC sounds so you never miss an episode of the TMS podcast and you can keep up to date with all things cricket by following at BBC TMS on X and at BBC cricket on Instagram. Thanks for listening and we'll speak to you again next time. Welcome to the brand new podcast series Rugby League Top 10 with me Mark Chapman. It's where

John Wilkin, Brian Noble and Jamie Peacock will discuss, debate and argue over lists of the best players games, finals, iconic moments and plenty of other categories that will no doubt leave you screaming at your device. The most entertaining parts of the last sport are these, the jeopardy, the moments. He made rugby league look cool. Yeah, I mean that's a difficult thing to do, I think.

It is really, is. Yeah, no. I think we've all managed to carry that bathroom. Rugby League top ten. Listen on BBC Sounds.