Pakistan's home series against Ireland postponed to 2027

Pakistan's home series against Ireland has been postponed to 2027 due to scheduling concerns. The white-ball series, which comprises three T20Is and three ODIs, will no longer be held in its current September-October window. While it was initially expected to be moved further out in the season, ESPNcricinfo has learned it will instead be removed from this home season altogether, and moved to the next one, with both boards looking at alternate dates in 2027.

The series, which would have been Ireland men's first visit to Pakistan was initially announced in May 2024. At the time, it was expected to take place in the early part of Pakistan's home season in 2025. When the PCB released its official season schedule, the series against Ireland was slotted in for September-October. At the time of writing, that remains the official schedule for the series on the PCB website.

However, that window has become increasingly congested for Pakistan, who are currently playing a white-ball series against West Indies. At the end of this month, they take part in a tri-series involving UAE and Afghanistan.

More significantly, the Asia Cup, the schedule and status of which was increasingly uncertain following a brief skirmish between India and Pakistan in May, was announced last week; it runs from September 9 to 28. With South Africa touring Pakistan for two Tests in early October, the window for the series against Ireland shrunk untenably.

"We wanted to balance content and planning better across the two seasons," PCB's international cricket department told ESPNcricinfo. "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."

Pakistan have a busy white-ball schedule this season with the T20 World Cup early next year. They have made little secret of their desire to play as much T20 cricket as possible, initially increasing the number of T20Is to a home series against Bangladesh at the expense of ODIs, before scheduling concerns resulted in their scrapping.

They were also understood to be keen to turn the ongoing series against West Indies to be T20-only, though ESPNcricinfo understands there were other considerations behind that move. In addition, the T20I series against Afghanistan will now be a tri-series, adding further short-form fixtures to their calendar.

Ireland do not have a fixture clash around the time the series was set to be played, though ESPNcricinfo understands the decision to postpone is mutual.