Reports: England's multi-format players to miss Pakistan T20Is due to hectic schedule

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had recently announced a 12-month schedule for both their men’s and women’s teams. As far as the men’s team’s fixtures are concerned, England and New Zealand, who had backed out of their tours last year, will be visiting Pakistan for a bilateral series later this year.

While Pakistan will be hosting England for seven T20Is in September, it has been reported that the visitors could be fielding a depleted side as the their multi-format players could end up missing the T20I series. The series will be held as a dress rehearsal for the T20 World Cup, which will be held in Australia a month later.

According to reports in the Daily Mail, “Multi-format cricketers are likely to miss the Pakistan series in order to rest — as there is no let-up from the start of the T20 matches until December 22 — and will therefore travel directly to Australia on October 1.”

It is to be noted that England’s limited-overs specialists would be going to Pakistan on September 15 i.e. just three days after the home series against South Africa. The schedule gets even tight for the Three Lions as they would be playing an ODI series against Australia after the conclusion of the World Cup, till November 22. Immediately after that, England will head back to Pakistan for participating in a three-match Test series.

Even England’s newly-appointed Test captain Ben Stokes has expressed his disappointment with the kind of scheduling.

“The schedule is definitely something that needs looking at. It is ridiculous the amount of cricket people are expected to play. The fact there is a Test match and one-day series overlapping sums it up,” he said.

The Three Lions packed schedule starts from June when they host the reigning World Test champions New Zealand in a Test series, starting June 2, following which India would be visiting the, for an all-format bilateral series in July, including the rescheduled fifth Test match.