Pakistan will open their 2026 calendar with a whistle-stop trip to Sri Lanka, squeezing three T20 internationals into the first fortnight of January. All matches are set for Dambulla, with fixtures on 7, 9 and 11 January – a neat dress rehearsal for the T20 World Cup that starts less than a month later.
The Pakistan Cricket Board, announcing the tour late on Monday, said the short hop “will provide the side with valuable match practice ahead of next year’s global event”. Given that every one of Pakistan’s World Cup group games is also in Sri Lanka, the logic is hard to fault.
The schedule is busy, bordering on relentless. Since the end of the PSL in May, Pakistan have rattled through bilateral series against Bangladesh (home and away), a trip to the West Indies, two tri-series, the Asia Cup and a home rubber with South Africa. They won the lot bar the Dhaka leg and the Asia Cup final, where India edged them.
Sri Lanka, for their part, have only just flown home after a three-week stop in Pakistan that included three ODIs and a tri-series featuring Zimbabwe. They now get the chance to hit back on their own patch, though the choice of Dambulla – a venue often kinder to bowlers under lights – keeps things interesting.
Once the dust settles, Pakistan head straight home to host Australia in another three-match T20I series at the back end of January, then it is right back to Sri Lanka for the main event. Babar Azam’s side sit in Group A alongside India, Namibia, the Netherlands and the United States, with all group fixtures scheduled for Colombo.
It is a tight turnaround, but that has been the theme of Pakistan’s white-ball planning for months: keep playing, keep sharpening. Whether the volume of cricket turns into a coherent World Cup challenge remains to be seen, yet the roadmap – at least on paper – looks clear enough.
