Sports Desk:

The first contingent of Pakistan’s T20I squad arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday morning ahead of their upcoming three-match T20I series against Bangladesh, set to begin on July 20 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

The group includes skipper Salman Ali Agha, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Nawaz, Abrar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, and Faheem Ashraf, along with support staff led by head coach Mike Hesson. They landed in Dhaka at 8:40am from Karachi via Dubai.

The second contingent — comprising Mohammad Haris, Abbas Afridi, Sahibzada Farhan, Hassan Nawaz, Sufyan Muqeem, Hussain Talat, Ahmed Daniel, Salman Mirza, and the remaining support staff — is expected to arrive in Dhaka at 5:20pm.

The team will begin preparations on Friday at the National Cricket Academy Ground in Mirpur ahead of the series opener, which is scheduled to be held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh are currently engaged in a three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, with the series-deciding third match to be played in Colombo tonight. The Bangladesh team is expected to return to Dhaka on Thursday.

The remaining two T20Is between Bangladesh and Pakistan will also be played at the same venue, on July 22 and 24.

This will be Pakistan’s first tour of Bangladesh since 2021, when they played two Tests and three T20Is.

Earlier this year, in May-June, Bangladesh toured Pakistan for a three-match T20I series, which the hosts won 3-0.