Pakistan women's team to tour South Africa for limited-overs series in January

KARACHI (Pakistan):

Pakistan Cricket Board

(PCB) on Monday announced that their women's team will tour South Africa to play three ODIs and as many T20Is, starting January 20.

"In consultation and discussions with

Cricket South Africa

, the series has been finalised to ensure women's

cricket

continues to build on the momentum and successes following the trailblazing ICC Women's Championship 2017-2020,

ICC Women's World Cup

2017 and the ICC Women's T20 World Cups 2018 and 2020," PCB said in a release.

"This additional series has also been organised to help both Pakistan and South Africa prepare for the upcoming assignments, in particular Pakistan, who will feature in the ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier in July 2021 for the event proper to be held in New Zealand in early 2022. South Africa, along with world champions England, Australia, India and hosts New Zealand, have already qualified for the World Cup after securing top positions in the ICC Women's Championship 2017-20," it added.

Durban will host the first

ODI

on January 20 and the third

T20I

on February 3. Both matches will be played under lights. Durban will also stage the second ODI on January 23 before the action moves to Pietermaritzburg where the third ODI and opening two T20Is will be played on January 26, 29 and 31 respectively.

The women's national selection committee has invited 27 women cricketers for a training and preparation camp, which will be held at the Hanif Mohammad High Performance Centre in Karachi from December 20.

The tour to South Africa will also be the first official assignment of head coach David Hemp and bowling coach Arshad Khan. While Hemp joined forces in October, Arshad was appointed in November.

Mohammad Kamran Hussain

will be the assistant coach at the training camp.

This will be Pakistan women's side's second tour to South Africa within 18 months. In May 2019, Pakistan and South Africa played three ICC Women's Championship ODIs which ended in a 1-1 draw. While in the five-match T20I series, Pakistan took a 2-1 lead before South Africa bounced back to clinch the series 3-2.

"South Africa are ranked above us, both in the ODI and T20I formats and, as such, I am sure this series will go a long way in not only assisting us to further improve our standards but also prepare for June's ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier 2021 as we aim to finish in the top three and progress to event proper in early 2022 in New Zealand," women's chief selector and head of the women's cricket, Urooj Mumtaz said.