England to play a total of 7 T20I matches in Pakistan next year.
England will play two additional T20Is on their tour of Pakistan next year as compensation for pulling out of visiting the Asian country this year in September.
England was scheduled to tour Pakistan in September for three T20Is this year. However after New Zealand pulled out of their tour to Pakistan, citing security reasons, the ECB also canceled the men's and women's teams' tour to Pakistan as well, which invited a lot of criticism.
The seven-T20I series between the nations is expected to be played ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022 in October. Then later in November-December, the cricketing heavyweight will face each other for the first Test series in Pakistan since 2005.
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Chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Tom Harrison after meeting with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in Lahore on Tuesday confirmed the same. He said that every cricketer in England wants to test his abilities against huge talent in Pakistan in their conditions.
“We’re happy to announce that we’ll be playing two extra white ball T20s on our (next year’s) tour of Pakistan. I don’t think there’s a cricketer in England that doesn’t want to test his abilities against the huge talent that is in this country (Pakistan), in the conditions they know best,” Tom Harrison said.
Talking about the same, PCB Chairman Rameez Raja said that it’s important for PCB and ECB to be on the same page and moving forward they are excited and they need England’s support because they’ve been putting in a lot of efforts to make visiting teams comfortable in Pakistan.
“It’s so important for ECB and PCB to be on the same page, and we discussed a lot of issues. Moving forward, (we are) extremely excited because we needed England’s support as you recall and know that we’ve put in a lot of effort to make sure that the visiting teams are comfortable in Pakistan,” Rameez Raja said.
Both England and Pakistan have found themselves in the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 and if they manage to win their respective games, they will clash with each other in the final.
While talking about the same, Rameez Raja said that it would be icing on the cake with Pakistan winning.
“That will be the icing on the cake with Pakistan winning, of course,” he said.
(AP inputs)