Why Pakistan and England are playing the most extended T20I series in history: seven games in thirteen days.

This prolonged meeting was caused by Covid-19 and the postponed tour from 2017.

The first of seven (count 'em) matches spread across the next 13 days will begin on Tuesday night at Karachi's National Stadium, marking the beginning of England's long-awaited T20 international series in Pakistan.

It will be the most extended T20 international series ever played between full-member countries and the most extended bilateral T20 series ever played. The only other full-member T20I series of more than five games was between India and South Africa's women in October 2019, when a sixth T20I was added after rain washed out the second and third. In November 2019, Malawi hosted Mozambique for seven men's and seven women's T20Is.

This series was initially scheduled to consist of five ODIs before the World Cup in India in February-March 2023; however, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 T20 World Cup has been pushed back to October-November 2022, and the 50-over World Cup has been made back to October-November 2023.

Even though the men's squad was only scheduled to play two T20Is in Lahore during a four-day layover en route to the T20 World Cup last year, the ECB abruptly canceled the tour out of concern for the players' mental and physical well-being.

When PCB chair Ramiz Raja suggested Pakistan had been "used and binned" by cricket's "Western Bloc," ECB chief executive Tom Harrison and deputy chair Martin Darlow flew to Lahore in November 2021 to explain the circumstances of their withdrawal.

Both nations will rotate their squads to keep their top players fresh for the T20 World Cup next month, which was agreed upon by the boards during the trip. This series will now consist of four Twenty20 Internationals.

Jos Buttler, who will not be eligible to play again until the Lahore leg of the trip, stated, "Seven games will be a test." Some of them are consecutive, so we'll need to manage our roster carefully. We need to take care of a few bowlers. We have to put them out there and get them in fighting shape, but we can't afford to take any unnecessary chances.

As England's coach, Matthew Mott, said: "Initially, I thought seven games over here would be a lot, but I think it will play into our favor. In this series, we can play several games for the returning players and watch how different players perform under pressure.

In addition to the seven scheduled games, the two sides will play an official ICC warm-up match at the Gabba on October 17.