Hosts Sri Lanka overcame the early loss of opener Kaushal Silva to reach 85 for one at lunch on the opening day of the third and series-deciding Test at Pallekele on Friday.
Opener Dimuth Karunaratne was batting on 34 with Upul Tharanga (39) at the other end. Both hit five boundaries after Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq won the toss and asked Sri Lanka to bat.
Left-arm paceman Rahat Ali, one of the four new faces in Pakistan's starting line-up, gave his team an early breakthrough, inducing an edge from Silva (nine) with wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed taking the catch.
Karunaratne survived an anxious moment when Pakistan unsuccessfully reviewed a decision after the umpire had turned down bowler Imran Khan's leg-before appeal.
Tharanga hit Rahat for back-to-back boundaries as the batsmen survived some testing bowling from the Pakistani attack, who exploited the early moisture in the pitch to trouble them.
Pakistan were without injured paceman Wahab Riaz, while the trio of opener Mohammad Hafeez, pace bowler Junaid Khan and left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar have all been dropped from the starting line-up.
Rahat, Shan Masood, Imran Khan and Ehsan Adil were included as Pakistan opted for a bowling attack with three seam bowlers and in-form leg-spinner Yasir Shah.
For Sri Lanka, retiring Kumar Sangakkara sat out the match and the hosts also left out injured paceman Dushmantha Chameera, left-arm spinner Rangana Herath and middle order batsman Kithuruwan Vithanage.
Upul Tharanga, Jehan Mubarak, Suranga Lakmal and Nuwan Pradeep are the four replacements. – Reuters