Pakistan’s white-ball series against Ireland pushed to 2027

Pakistan’s white-ball home series against Ireland, originally scheduled for September-October 2025, has been postponed to 2027 due to a packed cricket calendar. 

The series, which included three T20Is and three ODIs, was supposed to mark Ireland men’s first-ever tour of Pakistan. It had been announced in May 2024 and was expected to be part of Pakistan’s 2025 home season. The PCB had slotted it for the early part of the season, with fixtures planned between September and October.

However, Pakistan’s schedule has become increasingly tight. The national team is currently facing West Indies in a white-ball series, and will also be part of a T20I tri-series with Afghanistan and UAE at the end of August.

Adding to the congestion is the ACC Men’s Asia Cup, confirmed to run from September 9 to 28. Following that, Pakistan is set to host South Africa for a two-match Test series in early October, further shrinking the window for Ireland’s tour.

“We wanted to balance content and planning better across the two seasons,” said PCB’s international cricket department. 

“It made more sense for us both to spread the fixtures further out as we already have substantial content leading into Asia Cup and then the World Cup,” it added. 

Pakistan’s white-ball calendar is particularly heavy this season, as preparations for the T20 World Cup are underway. The board has been focusing on playing more T20 cricket, even turned a home series against Bangladesh into a T20-only affair before scrapping it due to further scheduling issues.

The T20I series against Afghanistan has also been expanded into a tri-series, adding more matches to Pakistan’s short-format workload.

Although Ireland does not have any direct fixture clashes during the original window, the decision to move the tour to 2027 was mutual between both boards. New dates are expected to be finalised later.