Lahore
The Pakistan Cricket Board on Wednesday announced the schedule of their men’s team’s tour of England next year. The five-week-long tour, which runs from 30 July till 2 September, will see Pakistan take on England in three Tests and as many as T20Is. The Test series will be Pakistan’s last World Test Championship (WTC) assignment in their 2019-20 season after they host Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in October and January with a tour of Australia sandwiched in between.
The three T20Is come up with an opportunity to prepare for the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia in October 2020. The tour will kick off with a Test at the iconic Lord’s ground, where Pakistan came out victorious in their last two matches in the format with the margins of 75 runs and nine wickets in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
The tour also serves up opportunities for Pakistan to register wins at Old Trafford in Manchester – where they last won in 2001 and were defeated on the 2006 and 2016 tours – and Trent Bridge in Nottingham, where they last played in 2010 and are yet to win a Test in four visits. Pakistan, since 2016, have visited England every year. They toured the British Isles in 2017 for the ICC Champions Trophy and returned home with the prestigious silverware. In 2018, they toured England for a two-match Test series, which was drawn 1-1.
The next year’s tour will go down as Pakistan’s fourth Test tour of England this decade and the sixth this century. England’s return tour of Pakistan will be in 2022 which will be a split affair. The three-match ODI series is scheduled for October and the three WTC Tests will be held in December.
Zakir Khan, Director International Cricket, said, “This tour holds special significance since this will be Pakistan’s first-ever tour of England for World Test Championship matches.
A tour of England tests the skills and limits of the visiting sides and I anticipate this tour to help Pakistan furnish their red-ball skills and also prepare them for the all-important ICC T20 World Cup in Australia latter in 2020.”
“The PCB and the English and Wales Cricket Board enjoy an amicable relationship and this being Pakistan’s third bilateral tour of England in the last four years perfectly mirrors it. In 2010, the ECB provided the PCB facilities to host Australia in a two-match Test series,” he added. Complete schedule:
1st Test match, England v Pakistan, 30 July-3 August 2020, Lord’s, London 2nd Test match, England v Pakistan, 7-11 August 2020, Old Trafford, Manchester 3rd Test match, England v Pakistan, 20-24 August 2020, Trent Bridge, Nottingham 1st T20I, England v Pakistan, Saturday 29 August 2020, Headingley, Leeds 2nd T20I, England v Pakistan, Monday 31 August 2020, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff 3rd T20I, England v Pakistan, Wednesday 2 September 2020, Ageas Bowl, Southampton.—APP
