The Pakistan Cricket team will play a three-day match and five one-day games with Sri Lanka’s Under-17 team in October, to be hosted by the PCB in Multan.
The PCB says that the Sri Lanka U17 team will reach Multan on October 5. Both sides will then undergo training in Multan Cricket Stadium from October 6-8 in preparation for the series.
The three-day encounter between Pakistan and Sri Lanka Under-17 teams will be on October 9-11.
The series will be followed by a five-match one-day stint which will be played from October 15 to 24. The entire tour will be played at the Multan Cricket Stadium.
The series will give the young players from both countries a chance to experience playing in longer and limited-overs format in an international cricket.
The tour arrives at a challenging juncture for Pakistan cricket, who had a poor run in international tests recently.
The three-Test series between Pakistan and England in England was completely won by the hosts, who won the first Test by an innings and 103 runs, then second test by 194 runs and finally third test by eight wickets.
In the first Test, Pakistan lost 20 wickets in under 86 overs and in the second Test, their plight continued at the hands of England who won with a huge margin.
Pakistan had to make significant changes during the tour as seven players were sent home after the Lord’s Test, and Mike Hesson was called in as a coach for the Test side.
The new series has brought the issue of Pakistan’s consistency and preparation for Test series back into the limelight after they lost their match on the first day against the England bowlers.
The Pakistan Cricket Board is now focusing more on red-ball cricket, and Shaheen Afridi has come back to first-class cricket after a long period of time.
That said, the Sri Lanka U17 series will provide the novice Pakistani players with a taste of the international arena and a chance to grow as red-ball and white-ball players.