LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to play a shorter series against Zimbabwe, comprising three T20 Internationals and as many One-day Internationals, from Sept 26 to Oct 5.

The series will end eight days before Pakistan begin a high-profile Test series against England in the UAE with the first Test starting from Oct 13.

The Zimbabwe tour was scheduled for August but was deferred on the PCB’s request as it was reluctant to play ODIs till Sept 30 — the cutoff date for Champions Trophy qualification — as any defeat would hit Pakistan’s chances of making it to the tournament.

Pakistan moved to eighth position in the ICC rankings — the last spot for Champions Trophy qualification — following their 3-2 series win over Sri Lanka last week.

Against Zimbabwe, the T20s will be played from Sept 26-30 with the ODI series running from Oct 1-5.

“We have dealt with the tour outline with my PCB counterpart Shahryar Khan. The management of our respective boards will now continue to fine-tune the tour schedule,” said Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Wilson Manase in a statement on the Zimbabwe Cricket website.

The ZC chairman added that he is also talking to his West Indies Cricket Board counterpart “to see what they can do about the West Indies tour to Zimbabwe, given the new Pakistan tour dates.”

The PCB, till the filing of this report, did not issue any press release in this regard.

Earlier, a triangular series also involving the West Indies, who are struggling to qualify for the Champions Trophy, was under consideration but Pakistan pulled out of it following their series win against Sri Lanka saying there was no written agreement made in this regard.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2015

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