Karachi (March 31, 2018): The West Indies 13-member squad, which will be taking on Pakistan in three T20 matches, will be arriving in Karachi tonight.
The first group of players and officials will arrive on Saturday night at 9:30pm, while the second group will arrive at 12:15am at the Jinnah International Airport. Two different flights were said to have taken due to lack of seats for everyone on the flight from Dubai to Karachi.
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The two-time World T20 champions will be will be staying in Karachi for three nights and will be under intense security from the airport to the hotel.
The first match of the T20 series will take place on Sunday night, while the third and last match will take place Tuesday night. The players will depart from the stadium right after the match for the airport.
Moreover, the visiting team will not be taking part in any practice session before the first game on Sunday evening. The captains will also not hold a pre-series press conference as per tradition nor will there be a photoshoot with the series trophy as is mostly the case.
According to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the Pakistani cricket team will hold a press conference today at 5:30pm. After which the team will have a practice session from six to nine in the evening at the National Stadium.
Pakistan have done well in the shortest format of the game, having won 14 of the 17 Twenty20 internationals since Sarfraz took over as captain in September 2016.
That helped them reach the number one spot in Twenty20 rankings, having won 2-1 in New Zealand in January this year.
Pakistan have included three newcomers in batsman Asif Ali, allrounder Hussain Talat and paceman Shaheen Shah Afridi — after the trio fared well in the PSL 2018.
West Indies will be without their regular Twenty20 captain Carlos Brathwaite, who opted out of the tour over security fears while openers Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis, allrounders Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, and spinner Sunil Narine were not available for selection due to their commitments to the Indian Premier League.
Middle order batsman Jason Mohammad will lead the side, which has four uncapped Twenty20 players in batsman Andre McCarthy, fast bowler Odean Smith, left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul and all-rounder Keemo Paul.
The Pakistan Cricket Board have put in place stringent security arrangements for the West Indies team, with 8,000 policemen and paramilitary personnel guarding the visitors in and around the hotel and stadium.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee David Boon will supervise the series while ICC general manager cricket Geoff Allardice and umpires manager Adrian Griffith will also attend the matches to oversee arrangements.
The series comes as Pakistan is enjoying guarded optimism over the return of international cricket, driven from the country after a deadly militant attack targeting the Sri Lanka team in 2009.
Earlier this month Karachi successfully hosted the final of the popular Pakistan Super League (PSL), becoming the second major venue to host international matches after Lahore hosted Zimbabwe in 2015.
Teams:
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Ahmed Shehzad, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Hasan Ali, Rahat Ali, Usman Khan Shinwari, Shaheen Shah Afridi.
West Indies: Jason Mohammed (captain), Samuel Badree, Rayad Emrit, Andre Fletcher, Andre McCarthy, Keemo Paul, Veerasammy Permaul, Rovman Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Marlon Samuels, Odean Smith, Chadwick Walton, Kesrick Williams.
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