COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will play their first day-and-night Test match later this month when they meet Pakistan for a two-match series in the United Arab Emirates, the cricket board said on Monday.

The Test series will start Sept 28 and is due to end on Oct 10 with one of the games slated to be played as a day-and-night match.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), meanwhile, announced a 25-member provisional squad led by Dinesh Chandimal for the Test series.

Sri Lanka will also play five One-day Internationals and two Twenty20 matches in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, a board official said.

A third T20 match will be played in Lahore, Pakistan subject to security clearance, the official said.

“The exact itinerary will be released shortly,” the official said adding that one of the Tests to be played in the UAE would be Sri Lanka’s first with the pink ball used in day-and-night Tests.

Last month, Sri Lanka’s cricket board approved a tour to Pakistan, eight years after a deadly militant attack against the team brought top international games there to a standstill.

Sri Lanka Cricket had originally expected to play all three T20 internationals in Pakistan, including one in Lahore, scene of the 2009 attack which left eight people dead.

Leading cricket nations have shunned playing in Pakistan since the attack, in which gunmen ambushed the Sri Lankan team bus en route to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, wounding at least seven players.

Since 2009, the only international team to visit Pakistan is Zimbabwe, who played five limited-overs games in Lahore in 2015. Pakistan play their ‘home’ internationals in the United Arab Emirates.

But there were hopeful signs when Pakistan successfully staged the final of the Pakistan Super League — the rest of which was played in UAE — under heavy security in March.

Addressing the Asian Cricket Council in Colombo last month, Sri Lanka Cricket chief Thilanga Sumathipala called for an end to Pakistan’s isolation and urged countries to play there.

Provisional squad for Pakistan Tests: Dinesh Chandimal (captain), Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Lahiru Thirimanne, Niroshan Dickwella, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Rangana Herath, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Lakshan Sandakan, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Jeffrey Vandersay, Milinda Siriwardana, Roshen Silva, Akila Dananjaya, Charith Asalanka, Shaminda Eranga, Dhammika Prasad.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2017