LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday confirmed that Bangladesh’s T20 squad will visit the country later this month for a bilateral series comprising three games instead of five.

All the matches of this series will be staged at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium

According to a PCB announcement, Bangladesh’s tour got green signal at a joint meeting held between the heads of two cricket boards in Dubai on Tuesday.

“Bangladesh will tour Pakistan to play a three-match T20I series, the PCB confirmed today. The decision was made after a long and successful negotiation between PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi and Bangladesh Cricket Board president Faruque Ahmed and BCB chairman of the Board’s cricket operations Nazmul Abedin during a meeting in Dubai,” the announcement said.

“[The] three T20I matches will be played between Bangladesh and Pakistan men’s side and all matches are scheduled to take place in Lahore. Mohsin expresses gratitude to the President and Chairman of the Cricket Operations of the Bangladesh Cricket Board for finalising the tour,” it concluded.

When asked about the reason behind reducing the number of matches of the Bangladesh T20 series, a PCB spokesman said that there was some commitment of the BCB for which the matches were reduced from five to three.

Originally, the Iqbal Stadium, Faisalabad had to organise the first two matches while the Gaddafi Stadium was to hold the remaining three matches.

Earlier, the Bangladesh team had to visit Pakistan from May 21 to play a five-game T20 series from May 25.

However, due to a heightened military conflict bet­w­een Pakistan and India earlier this month, the tour looked to be in the doldrums. The situation got bleaker after the ongoing HBL Pakistan Super League was deferred on May 8 for an indefinite period amid armed clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

However, the security situation got better after the May 10 ceasefire. As a result, the PSL resumed on May 17 but its final scheduled for May 25 clashed with the T20 series against Bangladesh.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2025