LAHORE: Ireland women’s cricket squad will tour Pakistan for the first time to play three One-day Internationals and as many T20 Internationals here at the Gaddafi Stadium from Nov 4 to 16.

The three ODIs are the part of ICC Women’s Championship 2022-25 and these will be played from Nov 4-9, which will be followed by the T20s from Nov 12-16.

The visitors will arrive in Lahore on Oct 29 and will have four days of practice in the lead-up to the ODI series.

This will be the second successive series between Ireland and Pakistan in the ICC Women’s Championship. While Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka 2-1 in Karachi in June, Ireland lost all three matches to South Africa in Dublin in June.

Commenting on the forthcoming series in Lahore, Pakistan Cricket Board’s head of women cricket Tania Mallick said: “We had a great experience of hosting Sri Lanka earlier this year in Karachi and are now excited to host Ireland here at the Gaddafi Stadium. This is just the beginning of a new era in women’s cricket, after hosting Ireland we are looking forward to organising a women’s league soon.

“We want fans to come to the ground and support women’s cricket for what promises to be exciting six days of cricket in Lahore.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof said the hosts are spirited for the games against Ireland.

“We are all up for an exciting series against Ireland. The series will help us in attracting new fans to the women’s game. The series will provide an opportunity for young cricketers to upskill themselves as per the demands of international cricket.

“We are eager to perform in front of our home crowd and win crucial ICC Women’s Championship points as qualifying directly for the next ODI World Cup is one of our main targets,” she added.

The matches will begin at 10:00am (PST).

Series schedule:

Nov 4: First ODI

Nov 6: Second ODI

Nov 9: Third ODI

Nov 12: First T20 International

Nov 14: Second T20 International

Nov 16: Third T20 International.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2022