The last time England played a one-day international in Pakistan, they went home early. Their 2025 Champions Trophy campaign expired in the group stage, in the country that had staged it, and the tournament has hung over their white-ball cricket ever since. They will be back in Rawalpindi in a little over eight weeks, and the England ODI tri-series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka now shapes up as the first proper audit of whether anything has been fixed.
Pakistan’s home season was confirmed on Wednesday: three T20Is against Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi from 9 October – Pakistan’s first outing in the format since the 2026 T20 World Cup – then a triangular ODI series with England as the third side from 18 to 31 October, and two Sri Lanka Tests in November, ESPNcricinfo reported. For Harry Brook’s side it is the first fixture of a long winter, and the earliest competitive marker on the road to the 2027 World Cup.
The England ODI tri-series schedule in full
The format is a double round-robin: each side meets the other two twice, with the top two contesting a final at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on 31 October. Pakistan and Sri Lanka open the event in Rawalpindi on 18 October before England enter the competition.
- 20 October – Pakistan v England, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium
- 22 October – Sri Lanka v England, Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium
- 25 October – Pakistan v England, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
- 29 October – Sri Lanka v England, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
- 31 October – Final, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
It is a format England have barely touched in a decade. This is their first ODI tri-series since they faced Australia and India in Australia in the build-up to the 2015 World Cup, BBC Sport noted. Pakistan, by contrast, are becoming practised hosts: it is the second successive year they have staged a triangular one-day event, having brought in South Africa and New Zealand last autumn ahead of the Champions Trophy.
What it asks of Brook’s white-ball England
Brook takes a side into it with genuine momentum. England have won their past two ODI series under him, against Sri Lanka in January and India this summer, and the same group swept India 4-0 in the T20Is that followed – a run we covered when they sealed the sweep and the No.1 T20I ranking at Southampton. Rawalpindi and Lahore in late October will ask entirely different questions: flat, slow surfaces, dew under lights, and spin bowled by two sides who grew up on it.
It matters for Brendon McCullum too. He was removed as England’s Test coach in July but retains the white-ball job through to the next 50-over World Cup, and six matches in subcontinental conditions with a final available at the end of them is a rare piece of meaningful preparation rather than bilateral filler. Whether England use it to settle a first-choice XI or to keep widening the pool – the argument Stuart Broad made when he urged England to trial Brydon Carse now rather than later – will say a good deal about how they read their own depth.
A winter with no obvious gaps
The tri-series is only the opening item. England go straight into three ODIs and five T20Is against Australia from 13 November, then three Tests and three ODIs in South Africa, two Tests in Bangladesh, and the 150th anniversary Test in Melbourne in March. Anyone hoping the current Pakistan Test series at home marks the end of a demanding stretch has misread the calendar.
Which is rather the point of Rawalpindi. England’s last visit produced an early flight home and a set of questions nobody enjoyed answering; this one arrives with a different captain, a different balance of coaching responsibility, and silverware on the table on 31 October. Not a World Cup, but the first chance in some time to make the phrase “England in Pakistan” mean something other than that Champions Trophy exit.
