LAHORE: Pakistan will play a total of 13 Tests against six countries barring arch-rivals and world No.1 India and eighth-ranked West Indies in the newly-installed ICC World Test Championship till January 2021.

“The ICC is introducing the World Test Championship to give context to bilateral Test series. The nine top-ranked sides will compete in the tournament, with each side playing six series on a home-and-away basis against mutually selected opponents in the two-year cycle. The top two teams will play the final in June 2021,” a PCB press release said on Thursday.

The ICC, in an attempt to keep Test cricket alive, has introduced the World Championship. The game’s governing body, however, is presently not keen in reducing the growing influx of T20 cricket with almost all major countries organising their own leagues.

Pakistan’s run in the long-awaited championship will kick off this October when they host Sri Lanka in a two-match Test series. The two cricket boards are in negotiation to play series in Pakistan rather than UAE.

After the Sri Lanka series, Pakistan will travel to Australia for further two Tests in November before hosting Bangladesh in the UAE next January. They would then visit England for three Tests in July-August in 2020.

Pakistan will go to New Zealand in December 2020 for two Tests before completing the cycle with a two-Test rubber at home in January 2021.

Schedule of Pakistan’s Test series:

October 2019: vs Sri Lanka, two home Tests.

November 2019: vs Australia, two away Tests.

January 2020: vs Bangladesh, two home Tests.

July/August 2020: vs England, three away Tests.

December 2020: vs New Zealand, two away Tests.

January 2021: vs South Africa, two home Tests.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2019