Pakistan are to host England in three tests, four one-dayers and three Twenty20 matches in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in January and February. “The matches will be played at the neutral venues of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the itinerary will be announced soon,” the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in a statement.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed the matches in its own statement and also announced the itinerary for five one-dayers and a Twenty20 game during an October tour of India and for two tests in Sri Lanka in March and April. Pakistan have not hosted an international match on home soil since the 2009 attack by gunmen on visiting Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore shattered the myth that athletes in the sub-continent enjoyed immunity of sorts against militancy.
Eight people died in the attack and six members of the Sri Lanka squad were injured. The UAE has become a second home for Pakistan who will also host Sri Lanka there for a test series in October and November. England also confirmed they will play Pakistan in an away series in the UAE this winter.
The tour adds to a winter programme that will also see England travel to the sub-continent to meet India in five ODIs and a Twenty20 in October, before a short two-Test series away to Sri Lanka in March-April. The ECB confirmed the itinerary for the series in India and Sri Lanka in a press release, while the details of the Pakistan tour have not been finalised beyond planning the trip for early in the new year.
The winter schedule, which begins on October 4 when England are due to arrive in India, will provide new limited overs captains Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad a tough initiation on foreign soil.
