Tayyab Arif's debut fifty steadies Pakistan after Sri Lanka send them in at Rawalpindi

Tayyab Arif struck 57 on his Test debut as Pakistan reached 122 for 2 after Sri Lanka chose to bowl first in Rawalpindi

Pakistan were 122 for 2 from 25 overs on the opening day of the first Test at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, the debutant opener Tayyab Arif providing the innings its shape with a brisk 57 after Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis won the toss and put the hosts in.

Tayyab Arif was one of four Pakistan players handed a Test debut, alongside Mohammad Taha, Arafat Minhas and Saqib Khan, in a side rebuilt after a sequence of defeats that has left Pakistan bottom of the World Test Championship table.

Mendis, leading Sri Lanka in a Test for the first time since taking the job in October, left out his frontline spinner and picked four seamers for a surface that, he said, "looks like a good fast bowling wicket".

A quick start from the debutant

Tayyab Arif made 57 from 50 balls with nine fours and a six, taking on Sri Lanka's new-ball pair rather than waiting them out.

He and Azan Awais put on 86 for the first wicket before Awais fell for 30, caught by Mendis off Milan Rathnayake in the 16th over.

Tayyab Arif followed four balls later for the same fielder, caught by Mendis off Asitha Fernando with the score 90 for 2, Sri Lanka's seamers having taken two wickets in five balls.

Babar Azam and Mohammad Taha, the second of the debutants, added an unbroken 32 for the third wicket to steady the innings.

Four debutants in a remade side

Tayyab Arif earned his call-up with 727 runs in seven matches at 66.09, including three centuries, for Kingsmen Academy in his first season in the Departmental First-Class Tournament.

Mohammad Taha, 26, was the third-highest run-scorer in the President's Trophy Grade-I with 730 runs in seven matches, three of them hundreds and the best of them 225.

Saqib Khan arrives on the back of 47 wickets at 20.60 in nine matches for Karachi Blues, winners of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, with a best return of 7 for 34. Arafat Minhas, a left-hand batter who bowls spin, has 941 first-class runs at 32.44 and 22 wickets.

"During the England series we had planned to give new players a chance, so I am ready to fight with these young players," Babar Azam said before the match.

Mendis gambles on the grass

Sri Lanka omitted Prabath Jayasuriya and went in without a frontline spinner, trusting Dilshan Madushanka, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Rathnayake to exploit the tinge of grass left on the pitch against an inexperienced Pakistan top order.

It is Mendis's first Test in charge after he replaced Dhananjaya de Silva as captain in October. "It's exciting and I am happy to lead the side," he said at the toss.

Pakistan also named no specialist spinner, the veteran Mohammad Abbas leading a pace attack completed by Razaullah and Saqib Khan, with Minhas the only slow-bowling option.

Both sides looking for a reset

Pakistan have won two of their nine matches in this World Test Championship cycle, a run that includes a 3-0 loss in England and a 2-0 defeat by Bangladesh, and they begin this series last in the standings.

Sri Lanka sit seventh, with one win, three draws and two defeats from six Tests.

A long tour reaches its Test leg

Sri Lanka have been in Pakistan for more than a month, losing the Twenty20 series 2-1 and then the final of the one-day tri-series to the hosts.

Their happiest memory of this ground came in that tri-series, when they chased down 430 against England, the second-highest successful chase in one-day international cricket.

The second and final Test of the series begins in Lahore on 17 November. Pakistan have won 23 of the 59 Tests between the two sides, Sri Lanka 17, with 19 drawn.

Scorecard: Pakistan 122 for 2 (Tayyab Arif 57, Azan Awais 30) v Sri Lanka, first Test, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, day one in progress