Table of Contents
The Sri Lanka national cricket team vs Pakistan national cricket team timeline stretches back to 1975, and by mid-2026 the two sides had met 250 times across Tests, ODIs and T20Is. Pakistan first played Sri Lanka in an ODI at the 1975 World Cup, then in a Test in 1982 once Sri Lanka earned full ICC membership. Since then it’s grown into one of Asian cricket’s steadiest rivalries: not as loud as India vs Pakistan, but with more World Cup, Asia Cup, and Champions Trophy history than most people realize. Pakistan holds the edge in every format. Sri Lanka has still landed some of the biggest punches, including a 234-run demolition in Lahore and a T20I series win as recently as this year. This guide runs through the full head-to-head record, every major series, the biggest wins and defeats, and the matches both nations still talk about.
Sri Lanka National Cricket Team vs Pakistan National Cricket Team Timeline : Head-to-head record
Overall (all formats)
| Format | Matches | Pakistan won | Sri Lanka won | Tied | No result / drawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 59 | 23 | 17 | 0 | 19 draws |
| ODI | 160 | 96 | 59 | 1 | 4 |
| T20I | 31 | 18 | 12 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 250 | 137 | 88 | 1 | 24 |
Pakistan’s overall win rate against Sri Lanka sits above 54%, and it’s the closest thing Pakistan has to a “favourite opponent” among the other big Asian and Full Member sides.
Test head-to-head
59 matches played since the first meeting in 1982. Pakistan won 23, Sri Lanka won 17, and 19 ended in a draw, a draw rate of roughly one in three, typical of subcontinent pitches that wear down but rarely turn into results in five days. Pakistan also holds a 10-6 lead in bilateral Test series, with 6 series drawn.
ODI head-to-head
160 ODIs make Sri Lanka one of Pakistan’s most frequent opponents in the format. Pakistan has won 96, Sri Lanka 59, with 1 tie and 4 no-results. Pakistan’s win percentage of 60% against Sri Lanka in ODIs is their best win rate against any team they’ve played more than 50 times.
T20I head-to-head
The newest format tells a tighter story. Pakistan leads 18-12 from 31 matches, with 1 no result. Sri Lanka actually won the most recent bilateral T20I series (January 2026, drawn 1-1 after a washout), but Pakistan came out on top the next time the teams met, at the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Sri Lanka National Cricket Team vs Pakistan National Cricket Team Timeline
1975–1979: the first contact
Pakistan and Sri Lanka met for the first time in an ODI at the 1975 Cricket World Cup in England. Sri Lanka were still an ICC associate at that point and Pakistan, unsurprisingly, won comfortably. These early meetings were rare and mostly confined to World Cups, since Sri Lanka hadn’t yet earned Test status.
1980s: Sri Lanka arrives as a Test nation
Sri Lanka gained full ICC membership in 1981 and played their first Test against Pakistan in 1982. Pakistan, packed with players like Javed Miandad, Imran Khan and Zaheer Abbas, dominated the early Test meetings, but Sri Lanka’s spinners and middle order slowly closed the gap through the decade. Bilateral ODI series between the two became a regular fixture, usually played in the UAE or on the subcontinent.
1990s: World Cup rivalry and the Asian Test Championship
The 1990s raised the stakes. Both teams featured regularly at Asia Cup and World Cup tournaments, and Sri Lanka’s rise to world champions in 1996 changed the balance of the rivalry, even though that particular World Cup didn’t pit the two sides against each other in a final. The decade’s defining PAK-SL contest came off the World Cup stage entirely: the 1998-99 Asian Test Championship final in Lahore, which Pakistan won by an innings and 175 runs, arguably their most emphatic result against Sri Lanka in Test history.
2000s: bilateral series, Test classics, and a tragedy that changed everything
Pakistan and Sri Lanka played frequent bilateral series through the 2000s, home and away, with both attacks producing genuine Test classics (Muttiah Muralitharan against Pakistan’s top order was must-watch cricket in this era). The decade also contained the rivalry’s two biggest turning points.
In January 2009, Sri Lanka toured Pakistan for an ODI series and won it 2-1, including a brutal 234-run win in Lahore where Pakistan were bowled out for 75. Weeks later, during the second Test of the same tour, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team’s bus near Gaddafi Stadium on March 3, 2009. Six police officers and two civilians were killed, and several Sri Lankan players and staff were injured. The attack halted international cricket in Pakistan for years and forced Pakistan to host “home” series on neutral territory, mostly in the UAE, until 2015.
Just months after the attack, the two teams met again at Lord’s in the final of the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. Pakistan won by 8 wickets, with Shahid Afridi named player of the match and Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan taking player of the series.
2010s: neutral venues, Champions Trophy, and Sri Lanka’s cautious return
Most of the decade’s bilateral cricket was played in the UAE, since Pakistan couldn’t host full member nations at home. Sri Lanka became the first Test-playing nation to return to Pakistan for a limited-overs fixture in October 2017, when Pakistan swept a 3-match T20I series 3-0 in Lahore under heavy security, eight years after the bus attack. On the ICC stage, the standout meeting was the 2017 Champions Trophy group match in Cardiff, where Pakistan chased down 237 to beat Sri Lanka by 3 wickets in a must-win game, then went on to win the entire tournament.
2020s: full resumption and a T20 World Cup on Sri Lankan soil
Bilateral cricket between the two returned to something close to normal through the early 2020s, with series played in both Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The pace picked up sharply from late 2025: an Asia Cup Super Four T20I in Abu Dhabi (Pakistan won by 5 wickets, September 2025), a full ODI series in Rawalpindi that Pakistan swept 3-0 (November 2025), a T20I series in Dambulla that Sri Lanka won 1-1 on countback after a washout (January 2026), and finally a high-scoring Super Eights thriller at the 2026 T20 World Cup in Pallekele, which Pakistan won by 5 runs despite Sahibzada Farhan’s 100 and a 176-run opening stand, only to be eliminated on net run rate anyway.
Pakistan National Cricket Team vs Sri Lanka National Cricket Team Test timeline
| Period | Series | Result | Notable performance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Sri Lanka’s first Test vs Pakistan | Pakistan won series | Sri Lanka’s maiden Test as a full member |
| 1998-99 | Asian Test Championship final, Lahore | Pakistan won by an innings and 175 runs | One of Pakistan’s most dominant results against Sri Lanka |
| 2000s | Multiple bilateral series (home and away) | Series shared across the decade | Muttiah Muralitharan a persistent threat to Pakistan’s batting |
| 2009-2011 | Series moved to UAE after the Lahore attack | Pakistan generally competitive at neutral venues | Pakistan effectively lost home advantage for years |
| 2017-2019 | Sri Lanka’s gradual return to full tours of Pakistan | Mixed results | Slow rebuilding of bilateral Test cricket |
| 2023 | Most recent Test meeting | — | Last of the 59 Tests played between the sides to date |
Across 22 bilateral Test series, Pakistan has won 10, Sri Lanka 6, with 6 series drawn, plus the 1998-99 Asian Test Championship, which Pakistan also won.
Pakistan National Cricket Team vs Sri Lanka National Cricket Team ODI timeline
| Period | Key series/events | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | First ODI meeting, World Cup | Pakistan won | Sri Lanka still an associate nation |
| 1996 | World Cup, hosted jointly by Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka | — | Both teams competed on home soil in the same tournament |
| 2002 | ICC Champions Trophy | Sri Lanka won | Pakistan’s only defeat to Sri Lanka in an ICC ODI tournament before 2017 |
| Jan 2009 | Bilateral ODI series, Pakistan | Sri Lanka won 2-1 | Included Pakistan’s 234-run defeat in Lahore |
| 2011 | Cricket World Cup, co-hosted by Sri Lanka | — | Pakistan reached the semi-final |
| 2017 | Champions Trophy group match, Cardiff | Pakistan won by 3 wickets | Pakistan went on to win the tournament |
| Nov 2025 | Bilateral ODI series, Rawalpindi | Pakistan won 3-0 | Babar Azam’s first century in over two years |
Pakistan and Sri Lanka have met 9 times at the men’s ODI Cricket World Cup. Pakistan has won 8 of those, with 1 match producing no result; Sri Lanka is yet to beat Pakistan at a men’s 50-over World Cup.
Pakistan National Cricket Team vs Sri Lanka National Cricket Team T20I timeline
| Period | Key series/events | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-2009 | Early T20I meetings, including the 2009 World T20 | Pakistan dominant | 2009 World T20 final won by Pakistan by 8 wickets at Lord’s |
| 2013-2016 | Bilateral T20I series, mostly in the UAE | Split results | Neutral-venue era continues |
| Oct 2017 | 3-match T20I series, Lahore | Pakistan won 3-0 | Sri Lanka’s first tour of Pakistan since the 2009 attack |
| Oct 2019 | 3-match T20I series, Lahore | Sri Lanka won 3-0 | Sri Lanka’s best T20I series result against Pakistan |
| Sept 2025 | Asia Cup Super Four, Abu Dhabi | Pakistan won by 5 wickets | Part of the T20 Asia Cup |
| Jan 2026 | 3-match bilateral series, Dambulla | Series drawn 1-1 | Second match abandoned without a ball bowled |
| Feb 28, 2026 | T20 World Cup Super Eights, Pallekele | Pakistan won by 5 runs | Farhan’s 100 and a 176-run stand went in vain as Pakistan missed the semis on net run rate |
Memorable matches between Pakistan and Sri Lanka
1998-99 Asian Test Championship final, Lahore. Pakistan crushed Sri Lanka by an innings and 175 runs, one of the most one-sided results in the rivalry’s Test history.
2009 ICC World Twenty20 final, Lord’s. Just months after the Lahore attack, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 8 wickets to win their first ICC World T20 title, with Shahid Afridi scoring an unbeaten 54 and taking the player of the match award.
March 3, 2009: the Lahore attack. Not a match remembered for cricket, but the single most significant event in the rivalry’s history. Gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team bus near Gaddafi Stadium during the second Test of a bilateral series, killing six police officers and two civilians, and injuring several players and staff. It shut Pakistan off from hosting international cricket for years.
2017 Champions Trophy, Cardiff. A must-win group game that went right to the wire. Sarfaraz Ahmed’s unbeaten 61 and a stand with Mohammad Amir dragged Pakistan to 237 for 7, a 3-wicket win that sent them into the semi-finals and, eventually, to the title.
January 2009 ODI series, Lahore. Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan scored 137 to set up a 234-run win, the heaviest defeat by margin of runs Pakistan has suffered against Sri Lanka, and Pakistan’s total of 75 remains the lowest ODI score ever recorded at Gaddafi Stadium.
February 28, 2026: T20 World Cup Super Eights, Pallekele. Sahibzada Farhan’s 100 and a record 176-run opening stand with Fakhar Zaman powered Pakistan to 212 for 8. Dasun Shanaka’s furious 76 not out off 31 balls, including 8 sixes, pulled Sri Lanka agonisingly close, but Pakistan held on by 5 runs, only to be eliminated from the tournament anyway on net run rate.
Also Read : India National Cricket Team Vs Pakistan National Cricket Team Timeline
Biggest victories and lowest totals
Largest win by runs (ODI)
| Winner | Margin | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sri Lanka | 234 runs | Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore | January 24, 2009 |
Lowest team total (ODI, at a shared venue record)
| Team | Total | Opponent | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pakistan | 75 all out | vs Sri Lanka | Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore | January 24, 2009 |
That 75 remains the lowest ODI total ever recorded at Gaddafi Stadium by any team, in any match.
Highest and lowest totals at the ODI World Cup (Pakistan vs Sri Lanka only)
| Team | Highest total | Lowest total |
|---|---|---|
| Pakistan | 345 | 216 |
| Sri Lanka | 344 | 138 |
Pakistan vs Sri Lanka in ICC events
| Event | Meetings | Pakistan won | Sri Lanka won | No result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cricket World Cup (ODI) | 9 | 8 | 0 | 1 |
| T20 World Cup | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Champions Trophy | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Asia Cup (all formats) | Multiple editions since 1984 | Pakistan leads overall | — | — |
Pakistan has never lost to Sri Lanka at a men’s 50-over World Cup and has only been beaten once by Sri Lanka at an ICC ODI tournament of any kind before 2017 (the 2002 Champions Trophy). At the T20 World Cup specifically, the two sides are closer: Pakistan’s 2026 Super Eights win moved them ahead 3-2 across the tournament’s history, having previously been tied 2-2, including that 2009 final win at Lord’s.
Recent series results
| Year | Format | Winner | Scoreline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Test | — | Most recent Test meeting between the sides |
| Sept 2025 | T20I (Asia Cup, Super Four) | Pakistan | Won by 5 wickets |
| Nov 2025 | ODI (bilateral) | Pakistan | Won 3-0 |
| Jan 2026 | T20I (bilateral) | Drawn | 1-1 (1 match abandoned) |
| Feb 2026 | T20I (T20 World Cup, Super Eights) | Pakistan | Won by 5 runs |
Sri Lanka were due to host Pakistan for a two-Test series later in 2026, with dates unconfirmed as of publication, and Pakistan’s home calendar also lists a reciprocal Sri Lanka visit for Tests. Neither had been played by July 2026.
Key rivalry statistics
- First match: 1975 Cricket World Cup (ODI)
- First Test: 1982
- Total matches played: 250 (Test, ODI, T20I combined)
- Overall record: Pakistan 137 wins, Sri Lanka 88 wins, 1 tie, 24 no result/draw
- Test record: Pakistan 23, Sri Lanka 17, 19 draws
- ODI record: Pakistan 96, Sri Lanka 59, 1 tie, 4 no result
- T20I record: Pakistan 18, Sri Lanka 12, 1 no result
- Biggest win (by runs): Sri Lanka, 234 runs, Lahore, January 2009
- Lowest total in the rivalry: Pakistan 75 all out, Lahore, January 2009
- World Cup (ODI) record: Pakistan 8, Sri Lanka 0, 1 no result, from 9 meetings
- Most recent meeting: February 28, 2026, T20 World Cup Super Eights, Pallekele (Pakistan won by 5 runs)
Frequently asked questions
Who has won more matches between Pakistan and Sri Lanka?
Pakistan, comfortably. Across all formats Pakistan has won 137 of 250 matches to Sri Lanka’s 88, a win rate above 54%.
When did Pakistan and Sri Lanka first play each other?
At the 1975 Cricket World Cup in England, in an ODI, when Sri Lanka were still an ICC associate member. Their first Test came later, in 1982, once Sri Lanka gained full Test status.
Which team has won more Test matches?
Pakistan, 23 wins to Sri Lanka’s 17, from 59 Tests, with 19 draws.
What was the biggest victory in the rivalry?
Sri Lanka’s 234-run win over Pakistan in Lahore on January 24, 2009, built on Tillakaratne Dilshan’s 137. In the same match, Pakistan were bowled out for 75, the lowest total either side has recorded against the other.
Which ICC tournaments have featured Pakistan vs Sri Lanka?
The Cricket World Cup, the T20 World Cup, the Champions Trophy, and the Asia Cup, in both ODI and T20I formats. Pakistan has never lost to Sri Lanka at a men’s ODI World Cup.
Who won the latest Pakistan vs Sri Lanka match?
Pakistan, by 5 runs, in the T20 World Cup Super Eights at Pallekele on February 28, 2026. It wasn’t enough to save their net run rate, and Pakistan were eliminated from the tournament despite the win.
How many ODI matches have Pakistan and Sri Lanka played?
160, as of their most recent ODI series in November 2025, which Pakistan won 3-0. Pakistan has won 96 of those matches to Sri Lanka’s 59.
Did the 2009 Lahore attack end Test cricket between the two teams?
It didn’t end it permanently, but it froze international cricket in Pakistan for years. Sri Lanka didn’t return for a bilateral tour until October 2017, initially only for a T20I series, with fuller tours resuming gradually afterward.
Has Sri Lanka ever beaten Pakistan in an ICC ODI tournament final?
No. Pakistan has generally had the upper hand at ICC events; Sri Lanka’s only pre-2017 win over Pakistan in any ICC ODI tournament came in the 2002 Champions Trophy group stage, not a final.
Is there an upcoming Pakistan vs Sri Lanka series?
Yes. Both boards have reciprocal Test tours scheduled for later in 2026, though exact dates hadn’t been confirmed as of this update.
Conclusion
The Sri Lanka national cricket team vs Pakistan national cricket team timeline is one of the more one-sided long rivalries in world cricket on paper, Pakistan leads every format, and has barely lost to Sri Lanka at ICC events in 50 years of trying. But the numbers undersell how competitive individual periods have been. Sri Lanka’s 234-run demolition in 2009 remains one of the heaviest defeats either side has inflicted on the other in any bilateral series. The 2017 Champions Trophy chase in Cardiff turned into the springboard for a Pakistan title run. And the most recent chapter, a 5-run T20 World Cup thriller in February 2026 that still wasn’t enough to save Pakistan’s net run rate, shows the rivalry hasn’t lost any of its edge. With Test tours pencilled in for both countries later in 2026, this timeline is nowhere near finished.
