Joe Root Responds After Wasim Akram Says England Owe Pakistan Reciprocal Tour
Aug 18, 2020 at 9:52 AM
All eyes are on England over whether they will tour Pakistan in 2022 for a scheduled tour after the latter have visited them in testing times. Both the teams are currently involved in a three-match Test series and will later play the same number of T20Is. Pakistan’s decision to tour England amid the pandemic has helped ECB save their home season in these tough times.
England have not travelled to Pakistan since 2005-06 due to security concerns following the terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan team in 2009. But things have started changing in recent years. The likes of Zimbabwe, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have visited Pakistan for bilateral series. PCB has also hosted PSL in Pakistan in the last couple of years.
England are scheduled to tour Pakistan in 2022 to play three Tests and five One-day Internationals. Earlier this week, Pakistan great Wasim Akram said that England owe Pakistan a reciprocal tour in 2022.
“You boys owe Pakistan cricket, and the country, a lot, with the boys coming over here. They’ve been here almost two and half months in the bio-secure environment,” Wasim told Sky Sports Cricket.
Joe Root responds to Wasim Akram:
While only time will tell how things unfold in the future, England captain Joe Root has said he “would love” to play in Pakistan. However, he also stated that he is unsure when the space could be found in a crowded schedule ahead of a planned tour in 2022.
“I’d love to go and visit Pakistan,” Joe Root told reporters.
“It would be a great opportunity to go and play there personally. Unfortunately, it’s not my decision to make but it looks a wonderful country to go and play cricket in. The wickets look nice and flat, which will be a nice change to what we have just played on here,” he added.
He further expressed his concern over how additional fixtures could be added to an international programme still struggling with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve such a busy schedule already with backlogging due to COVID, it will be interesting to see how that would work,” he said.