With eyes set on World Cup, Pakistan team reaches England

KARACHI: Pakistan team reached London on Tuesday to take part in a bilateral series against England next month, which will be followed by the World Cup 2019, starting from May 30.

The World Cup squad, led by Sarfraz Ahmed, left Lahore in the early hours of Tuesday. Pakistan will play three warm-up matches before taking on joint-hosts England in a five-match one-day series and a Twenty20.

The 1992 World Cup winners start their campaign against the West Indies in Nottingham on May 31. Pakistan have never beaten arch-rivals India in a World Cup match, but the clashes between the two sides have always been among the most exciting.

Skipper Sarfraz Ahmed had said on Monday that his side would treat every match as a match against India. “For us all nine matches are important so we will take every match as a match against India,” he said.

All ten teams will play each other in the tournament. The top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals. Pakistan have named two extra players in their squad for the five-match one-day series against England, with paceman Mohammad Amir and batsman Asif Ali in addition to the 15 for the World Cup.

All the teams have until May 23 to finalise the squad for the tournament. Meanwhile, coach Mickey Arthur said he believed the coming months “are exciting times for Pakistan cricket and for the team.

“We leave on a journey for which we have worked really hard. We have a good team, both in talent and attitude. “The initial thing is to qualify for the last four and take it from there, so I think we have the potential to certainly go all the way but before that we have to play very well,” he said.