Pakistan Cricket Team have reached the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi to depart for Colombo on Saturday.
The flight to Sri Lanka will depart at 10:40pm local time.
The Pakistani team will reach Sri Lanka via connecting flight to Dubai — where they will spend three hours before leaving for Colombo.
Men in Green are scheduled to reach Colombo on Sunday morning.
As per the initial plan, players were scheduled to travel to Rawalpindi from Karachi on Friday evening — to attend the wedding of pacer Haris Rauf — and were set to return in the afternoon on Saturday. But due to poor weather and rain forecast in the country following the monsoon season, the team management decided against taking any risk.
Pakistan team’s training camp concluded on Friday (July 7) at the National Stadium, Karachi.
The first Test of the series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be played at the Galle International Cricket Stadium on July 16 and the two teams will then travel to Colombo for the second Test at the Singhalese Sports Club from July 24 till 28.
Pakistan last toured Sri Lanka in July 2022 and that two-match Test series ended in a 1-1 draw. Pakistan scaled the target of 342 to register the best run chase at the cricket ground and win the first Test by four wickets. However, the hosts bounced back in the second Test to level the series with a 246-run win.
Itinerary of Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka:
9 July – Pakistan land in Colombo
11 and 12 July – Warm-up game
16-20 July – First Test at Galle International Cricket Stadium
24-28 July – Second Test at Singhalese Sports Club, Colombo
Pakistan squad
Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc & wk), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Huraira, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Afridi and Shan Masood
Player support personnel
Rehan-ul-Haq (team manager), Grant Bradburn (head coach), Andrew Puttick (batting coach), Morne Morkel (bowling coach), Aftab Khan (fielding coach), Abdul Rehman (assistant coach), Drikus Saaiman (strength and conditioning coach), Cliffe Deacon (physiotherapist), Ahsan Iftikhar Nagi (media and digital content manager), Lt Col Usman Anwari (Retd) (security manager), Talha Ejaz (analyst) and Malang Ali (masseur).
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.