PCB announces schedule for five-match T20I series against New Zealand at home

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has announced the schedule for New Zealand's upcoming T20 tour of Pakistan. The tour will witness both teams lock horns with each other in five T20Is, the first of which will be played in Rawalpindi on April 18.

The entire tour will be played at two different venues. The first three matches will be organised in Rawalpindi and the last two will be played in Lahore.

Notably, this will be a rematch of the five-match T20I that Pakistan played in New Zealand in January. The Blackcaps dominated the series and hammered Pakistan 4-1. The Shaheen Shah Afridi-led side won the inconsequential fifth T20I at Hagley Oval in Christchurch by 42 runs to salvage their pride and the humiliation of suffering a clean sweep.

Hence, the



upcoming bilateral contest will be an opportunity for Pakistan to redeem themselves and finalise their combination for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup to be played in June in the USA and the Caribbean.

Pakistan will rely heavily on the preparation that they have had in the ninth edition of the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The tournament has entered its playoff stage with Peshawar Zalmi to take on Multan Sultans in the Qualifier and Islamabad United to square off against Quetta Gladiators in the Eliminator 1.

Notably, Shaheen's Lahore Qalandars who entered the season as the defending champions, suffered a lacklustre outing and could only manage to win one game. Shaheen bagged 14 wickets in nine games at an economy rate of 8.61 and finished as the leading wicket-taker for Qalandars.