Scotland to host Pakistan for T20Is next year

DUBAI: Scotland will host Pakistan for two Twenty20 Internationals in Edinburgh in June 2018.The matches will take place on June 12 and 13 at The Grange, after Kyle Coetzer’s men meet England in a one-off One-day International (ODI) on June 10 at the same venue.

Scotland and Pakistan have only met once in the 20-over format, during the group stage of the 2007 ICC World T20 in South Africa, where the latter rode on Shahid Afridi’s all-round heroics to clinch a 51-run win.

Pakistan last visited Scotland in May 2013 for a two-match ODI series, which they won 1-0 after the second game was abandoned due to rain.This will be the first time that Scotland host a full member for a T20I, and Coetzer, the skipper, was excited about the prospect of facing the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 winner.

“To have the opportunity to take on a hugely talented Pakistan team at home in two T20Is is wonderful news for both the players and our supporters,” he told Cricket Scotland.

“With these matches taking place in the same week that we host England in an ODI in Edinburgh, it gives us a great chance to show how far we have come as a group in both of these formats of the game.

“It also means that having defeated Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka this year, we have another great chance to take some more full-member scalps. As a squad, we want to test ourselves against the world’s best and in Pakistan and England we have two of the current top sides in the world coming to Scotland next summer.”