The England men’s cricket team is likely to tour Pakistan in the second week of September thi year for a seven-match T20I series, according to a Pakistan media report.
According to a report by Pakistan television channel Samaa, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are in talks of giving the final touches to the bilateral tour.
“The seven-match T20I series will be played from September 15 to October 02. Matches are expected to be played in three venues — Multan, Rawalpindi and Lahore,” the report claimed citing sources.
Last week, PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja had met British Commissioner Christian Turner and said that dates for the upcoming tour will be announced very soon.
Initially, the Three Lions were scheduled to play only five T20Is however, former ECB Chief Executive Tom Harrison approved the addition of two more T20Is to make up for pulling out of a tour of Pakistan last year, the report claimed.
The two cricket boards have also established a working committee to make the series successful, the report said.
Notably, the relation between the PCB and the ECB got strained after England had cancelled its Pakistan tour in September last year, citing “increasing concerns about travelling to the region”, just days after New Zealand also pulled out of a tour to Pakistan over security concerns.
Later, ECB Chief Executive Tom Harrison had then flown to Pakistan to re-establish relations with the PCB and after meeting Raja, he had announced that the England men’s cricket team will play two additional T20Is against the hosts when they tour Pakistan in September-October 2022.
Commenting on his meeting with Raja last year, ECB Chief Executive Tom Harrison had said: “Myself and ECB’s Senior Director Martin Darlow visited Lahore to talk face to face with the PCB around some of the things that have happened over the past few weeks, leading to the cancelation of our tour in October. We also wanted to discuss the future as the two boards have a historic relationship and want to move the agenda towards a forward-looking one as opposed to one looking back.”
“We’re happy to announce that we’ll play two extra white-ball T20Is on our men’s tour of Pakistan in September/October 2022. We will then return after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia to complete the Test match element of that tour. This is just to reaffirm our commitment to Pakistan cricket to getting England teams, men’s and women’s teams, eventually playing in Pakistan at home. I don’t think there’s a cricketer in England who doesn’t want to test their abilities against the huge talent this country has and in the conditions they know best,” he added.