England vs. Pakistan: Warm-Ups In All But Name

In addition to the Ashes series this summer, England have announced four matches against Pakistan at the beginning of June.

Although Pakistan are a 'proper' (fully centrally contracted) team, they are comfortably the lowest-ranked side of the eight primary women's nations.

All four games are scheduled on work-days in the space of one week - one at tiny Louth CC in Linconshire; and the others over at the national performance center at Loughborough University.

The opponents, venues and scheduling, all suggest that these are primarily warm-ups for the bigger tests (but sadly not Tests - there is only one long-form game) to come; and although England's men have recently been criticized for under-estimating NZ, it would be a major upset if England came out of this with anything less than a whitewash. (Or possibly an entirely rain-affected nil-nil draw!)

England vs. Pakistan
1 June - ODI @ Louth CC
3 June - ODI @ Loughborough University
5 June - 2x T20 @ Loughborough University

(No links for tickets - my guess (going on what happened at the smaller venues last year) is that these will be "cash-on-the-door" jobs.)