Pakistan have opted out of playing a warm-up match in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup next month to ensure better workload management of their players.

Pakistan will enter the tournament after playing seven T20Is from 8-30 May. They are currently in England to play the hosts in four T20Is, the last of which will be exactly a week out from their tournament opener. These four matches follow a three-match T20I series against Ireland that concluded on Tuesday.

The decision to keep the players fresh has also been driven by the fact that this will be the biggest T20 World Cup, with 20 teams participating in the 55-match tournament. Pakistan, the runner-up of the 2022 T20 World Cup and the semi-finalists of the 2021 iteration, will be playing four matches in the first round against the USA (6 June), India (9 June), Canada (11 June), and Ireland (16 June). They will play three more games in the Super Eights, subject to qualification. The top four teams from the Super Eights will qualify for the knockout stage, the semi-finals, and the final.

Pakistan are among the three of the participating sides – England and New Zealand being the other two – to opt out of the warm-ups. The 16 warm-up matches will be played from 27 May till 1 June at Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium, Grand Prairie, Texas; Broward County Stadium, Broward County, Florida; and Queen’s Park Oval and Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Trinidad and Tobago. One peculiar feature of these games is South Africa playing an intra-squad match at Broward County Stadium on 29 May.

The warm-up games have been played regularly in the lead-up to the ICC men’s tournaments, with the matches being broadcast. But, this time, the participating teams have an option of either opting out or playing up to two practice games before the tournament, considering their arrival in the host nations.