Pakistan team arrives in Dhaka for a bilateral series

Pakistan team arrived in Dhaka yesterday to play the first bilateral series against Bangladesh after 2015.

The series against Bangladesh comprises of three T20 Internationals and two-match Test series.

The two-match Test series is part of World Test Champions (WTC) and Bangladesh basically will open their campaign in the second edition of the WTC with this series.

Pakistan were scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on November 17 as they were confident to play the final of the Twenty20 World Cup on November 14. But they lost their semifinal game to Australia, which forced them to arrive here earlier than the scheduled time.

Pakistan team touched the ground at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at around 8:10 am from Dubai. But the captain Babar Azam and all-rounder Shoaib Malik did not accompany the team. They will join the side in Dhaka on November 16, three days ahead of the first T20 International match. They are currently on four-day break.

The Pakistan team entered into the hotel directly after reaching Dhaka. They will not however stay in quarantine if they have two doses of vaccine and return negative in Covid-19 test. This is the first time any visiting team in Bangladesh will not stay in quarantine since the outbreak of the Covid-19.

This is Pakistan’s first bilateral series against Bangladesh after 2015 even though they last came in Bangladesh in 2016 for Asia Cup T20 tournament. During the only T20 match of the series in 2015 and Asia Cup T20 in 2016, Bangladesh beat Pakistan and those were two times, they could beat Pakistan in this format. Overall the two teams played 12 matches and Pakistan won the rest of the 10 matches.

Pakistan will be playing the first of the three T20Is against Bangladesh on November 19 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. The second and third T20Is will be held on November 20 and 22 respectively at the same venue.

All the T20Is will be starting from 2:00pm as per Bangladesh Standard Time (BST).

The teams will then travel to Chattogram to play the first Test from November 26 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. They will then return to Dhaka for the final fixture of the tour, the second Test, which will be played from December 4 in Mirpur.