ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan cricket team will kick off its Europe tour today, Friday, with the first of three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) against Ireland at the Castle Avenue, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said.
This marks the first time Ireland will host Pakistan for a T20I series. The two sides have previously met only once in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2009 where Pakistan won by 39 runs with Kamran Akmal receiving the player of the match award for his 51-ball 57 and two stumpings.
Interestingly, both Pakistan and Ireland are in the same group for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 and will face each other in Florida on June 16. Apart from the two sides, India, USA, and Canada are also in the same group, with the top two teams advancing to the second stage.
“Our preparations for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 began with the home series against New Zealand and now it’s all about putting the final touches on those preparations. We have clarity on our game plans, strategies and combinations. It’s about bringing everything together before we arrive in the United States,” the PCB quoted Pakistan head coach Azhar Mahmood as saying.
“We’ve only played Ireland once, so they will be a relatively new opponent for us. However, any team in T20 cricket can be dangerous as the match can swing in one over. The three T20Is will provide us with good information about their players and how they approach T20 cricket.”
The remaining two matches will also take place at the same venue in Ireland on Sunday and Tuesday, before Pakistan head to Headingley, Leeds on Wednesday for a series of four T20Is against England.
Following the England series, with matches scheduled at Headingley (22 May), Birmingham (25 May), Cardiff (28 May), and The Oval, London (30 May), both England and Pakistan will head to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, according to the PCB.
England will face Scotland in Barbados on June 4 in their opening match, while Pakistan will launch their campaign against the United States (US) in Dallas on June 6.
Meanwhile, fast bowler Mohammad Amir will miss the first T20I due to delays in the issuance of his visa. He is expected to join the side on Friday.
Squads
Ireland: Paul Stirling (captain), Mark Adair, Ross Adair, Andrew Balbirnie, Curtis Campher, Gareth Delany, George Dockrell, Graham Hume, Barry McCarthy, Neil Rock, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Ben White, Craig Young
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir (unavailable for first T20I), Mohammad Rizwan, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Usman Khan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: Militants detonated a bomb at a girls school in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s volatile northwest, badly damaging the structure, police said Thursday. No one was harmed in the overnight attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack late Wednesday that targeted the only girls school in Shawa, a town in the North Waziristan district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, local police chief Amjad Wazir said.

UNICEF condemned the bombing as “despicable and cowardly act that could jeopardize the future of many young and talented girls.”

According to the police chief, the attackers first beat up the school guard before setting off the explosives at the private Aafia Islamic Girls Model School, which has 150 students.

Suspicion is likely to fall on Islamic militants and specifically the Pakistani Taliban, who have targeted girls schools in the province in the past, saying that women should not be educated.

In a statement, Abdullah Fadil, the UNICEF representative in Pakistan, said the “destruction of a girls’ school in a remote and underserved area is a heinous crime detrimental to national progress.” He cited Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif statement on Wednesday declaring an education emergency and pledging to work toward enrolling 26 million out-of-school children.

Pakistan witnessed multiple attacks on girls schools until 2019, especially in the Swat Valley and elsewhere in the northwest where the Pakistani Taliban long controlled the former tribal regions. In 2012, the insurgents attacked Malala Yousafzai, a teenage student and advocate for the education of girls who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, were evicted from Swat and other regions in recent years. The TTP are a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

The Taliban takeover in neighboring Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban.