KARACHI: Pakistan will be finalizing a third team for a tri-nation series with Sri Lanka next month, its cricket board said on Saturday, hours after Afghanistan announced their withdrawal from the tournament.

The withdrawal came after the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) said Pakistani airstrikes had killed three of its cricketers in Paktika province close to the border with Pakistan.

A Pakistan security official said the strikes targeted a militant group. The assault ended a fragile truce announced by both sides on Wednesday after days of cross-border clashes that killed dozens on both sides.

The ACB said it considered the killing of the three players “a great loss for Afghanistan’s sports community” and had decided to withdraw from next month’s tri-series “as a gesture of respect to the victims.”

“The tri series is on and the third team will be finalized shortly,” a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) spokesman told Arab News, without commenting on the skirmishes.

The tri-series, also featuring Sri Lanka, is due to be played from Nov. 17 till Nov. 29 in Rawalpindi and Lahore as part of the teams’ preparations for the next year’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

It would have been second tri-series featuring Pakistan and Afghanistan in four months after both teams competed in a three-nation tournament in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in September.

Pakistan defeated Afghanistan in the final of that tournament.