Sri Lanka head coach Graham Ford has said the upcoming series against Pakistan in the UAE will be a tough challenge for his team.

Pakistan have been on the move of late despite the fact that their home venue is the UAE whereas Sri Lanka have been relatively dormant recently according an interview carried by leading international website on Sunday.

The advantage Pakistan’s got is that they have played a lot of international cricket in the last six-eight months whereas unfortunately we haven’t played nearly as much because of weather and various other things, he said.

We have done as much as we can to make sure we are sharp and ready but nothing’s quite the same as being match tight and match sharp. They have got an advantage from that point of view and they have got some fantastically talented cricketers.

In the past eight months, Pakistan have played four Tests, 23 ODIs and eight T20s compared to Sri Lanka who have played no Tests, 17 ODIs and five T20s.

The first Test against Pakistan which starts on December 31 in Dubai will be Sri Lanka’s first in nearly ten months and Ford said the players were keenly looking forward to the tour.

They have been out of cricket for a while and their energy and their effort in the training sessions has been exceptional. It is a great group to work with and motivation is never really anything of a problem Ford said.

I am not sure whether people realize just how proud these guys are to represent their country and they have often shown their characters when the chips are down. The time out of real top class international cricket and tours being cancelled has made them hungry.

On their last tour to the UAE in 2011, Sri Lanka lost the three Test series 1 0 the five match ODI series 4 1 and also went down in the only T20.

When Sri Lanka went their last it didn’t go all too well, Ford said. Hopefully we can show that we have made some progress. They are a very tough team to beat in the UAE and they are playing good cricket no matter where they play. They have done well against South Africa just recently. It really will be a tough challenge for us. Some of the players have been talking about some of the things they need to expect are going to happen there. Everybody is that much wiser on the conditions and what to expect.