Pakistan's solitary T20 World Cup 2026 warm-up match washed out

COLOMBO: Pakistan's one-off warm-up match of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 against Ireland on Wednesday was abandoned without a ball being bowled here at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground.

The abandonment of the aforementioned fixture meant the 2009 champions did not get to acclimatise to the playing conditions in Sri Lanka, where they will be playing all of their T20 World Cup 2026 matches under the International Cricket Council's (ICC) 'Fusion Formula'.

This arrangement has been made to prevent Pakistan and India from touring each other during global events, with both teams instead competing at neutral venues.

Pakistan will formally kick off their campaign against the Netherlands on February 7 at the same venue, which will also host their two more group-stage matches against the United States of America (USA) on February 10 and Namibia on February 18.

Notably, the Green Shirts were due to lock horns with arch-rivals India at the R Premadasa Stadium here on February 15, but the Government of Pakistan has barred them from taking the field for the blockbuster fixture.

Following the conclusion of the group stage, the top two teams from each of the four pools will advance into the Super Eight.

The subsequent stage will feature eight teams, divided into two groups of four, with the top two teams from each pool qualifying for the semi-final, scheduled to be played on March 4 and 5.

Should Pakistan progress to the semi-finals and final, the knockout matches will be held in Colombo; otherwise, the semi-finals and final will take place in Kolkata and Ahmedabad, respectively.

Pakistan squad: Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Mohammad Nafay (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan (wk) and Usman Tariq.