Pakistan U-19’s Bangladesh tour delayed, first game postponed to April 23

The recent surge in Covid-19 cases is understood to be the reason behind the reschedule

The BCB confirmed on Tuesday that Pakistan Under-19’s tour of Bangladesh has been pushed back by five days. The visitors will now arrive in the country on April 17 instead of April 12, but the number of matches remains the same.

Pakistan Under-19 will spend three days in quarantine in Sylhet before training for a couple of days. The first four-day match, initially scheduled for April 19-22, will now be held from April 23-26.

The first three games of the five-match Youth ODI series will be held in Sylhet on April 30, May 2 and May 4, before the touring party moves to Dhaka for the last two matches on May 7 and 9.

This will be the first international tour at the Under-19 level since the Covid-19 pandemic struck last year. The previous international age-gorup even was the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa.

While the BCB didn’t mention in the revised schedule the reason for the delay, it is clear it is due to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh. In the last 24 hours, there were 7213 new cases and 66 deaths, both figures a new high in the country.

Following the government’s announcement over the weekend that a seven-day lockdown would take effect from Monday, the BCB postponed the National Cricket League’s third round.

But the five-match one-day series between the emerging Bangladesh and South Africa women’s teams is being continued in Sylhet as per the schedule, with the second match held on Tuesday. The South Africans have three more matches in Sylhet on April 8, 11 and 13.