Pakistan to tour Ireland for three T20Is in May in teams first meeting since 2018

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The PCB has announced May 10, 12 and 14 for Pakistan's three-match T20I tour of Ireland, with the matches slotted for Castle Avenue in Dublin.

The series forms part of a 12-match run-in Pakistan have ahead of the T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies in June. Before Pakistan leave for Ireland, New Zealand will arrive in Pakistan in April to play five T20Is, with the first of those matches on April 18. The final game takes place on April 27. That is followed by a tour of England, where Pakistan play four T20Is starting May 22.

The last time Pakistan were in action was also in a T20I series, against New Zealand, who hosted them for five matches in January.

Pakistan last visited Ireland for Ireland's inaugural Test match in 2018. That was also the last time that the two teams had met across formats. And though Pakistan were scheduled to play Ireland in two T20Is in Dublin in July 2020, they were postponed because of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ireland, meanwhile, will be going into the T20Is against Pakistan on the back of ODI and T20I series defeats against Afghanistan in the UAE earlier this month, though they did secure a historic first Test win in Abu Dhabi to kick off that tour.

Pakistan were also scheduled to play another three T20Is against Netherlands in May, but that series was postponed indefinitely last November at the PCB's request. Netherlands' cricket board Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Board's high-performance manager Roland Lefebvre had, at the time, confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the tour had been put off because the PCB had cited scheduling clashes and concerns about player workload. The PCB had then said that they were actively looking to find another window.