Mumbai: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced it will be playing eleven matches of Quaid-e-Azam, their first class premier competition under lights with pink kookaburra ball. According to the schedule of the West Indies tour of UAE, Pakistan will be playing their first day-night Test against the West Indies in Dubai.
The five-dayer will be played from 13th-17th October and is the second ever Test match to be played beyond sunset. The tour begins from 23rd September and comprises of three T20s, three ODIs and three Test matches.
In June, WICB reluctantly agreed to play the Day-Night test in UAE after PCB’s offer of a practice match for the visitors with their patron XI and training sessions under lights. Pakistan is also scheduled to play second day and night test in 2016-17 season against Australia in Brisbane which will start from December 15th.
PCB tried to play this series in Sri Lanka to counter the increasing expenses in UAE, which was home for Pakistani team almost for a decade now. The idea was dropped because of the unpredictable rains in Sri Lanka during monsoon.
It is an interesting decision of PCB to only play three ODIs as their team is ninth on the ICC rankings table. Pakistan needs to play more ODIs in order to move up the ranking tables and avoid playing qualifiers for World Cup 2019. Pakistan though, will be entering with high hopes in this tour after their successful campaign against England.