Pakistan vs Australia: PCB announces the schedule of the UAE tour

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the schedule of Australia’s tour to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The ODI champions will face Sarfraz Ahmed and his men in two Test matches and three T20 Internationals in October this year. This will also be Australia’s first Test series after the infamous South Africa tour where the team was accused to have attempted to change the condition of the ball.

The schedule of the tour wasn’t finalised for a long time as the PCB was contemplating to convince Cricket Australia (CA) to play T20Is in Pakistan. But they denied playing due to the security reasons and the plans of PCB to revive the cricket in Pakistan were shelved. Even New Zealand Cricket hasn’t agreed to play and both the tours will be played in the UAE now.

Tour to commence on October 7

Australia’s tour of UAE will commence on October 7 with the first of the two-match Test series to be played at the Dubai International Stadium. There will be a four-day break then after which the second and final game is scheduled on 16th of the same month at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Three T20Is will follow after the conclusion of the Test series. The matches will be played on October 24,26 and 28.

Tim Paine, the current Australian captain, and his men will get acclimatised to the conditions in the UAE with a four-day match against Pakistan A at the International Cricket Council’s Academy in Dubai from September 29 to October 2.

Australia’s last tour to the country was a nightmare as they had lost both the Test matches by 221 and 356 runs respectively. They will need a team effort this time around in the absence of their gun players Steve Smith and David Warner who have been banned for 12 months after the ball-tampering fiasco earlier this year.

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