Pakistan Under-19 tour of England, 2026 Schedule & Match: Everything You Need to Know
Pakistan’s Under-19 cricket team is set for an important assignment on English soil this September, as the reigning Under-19 Asia Cup champions travel to England for a bilateral series against their England U19 counterparts. The tour, running from September 2 to September 16, 2026, will see the young Pakistani side play one four-day fixture and four One-Day matches across three picturesque English venues. For a team that has enjoyed a golden run over the past year, this tour represents both a fresh challenge and an opportunity to continue building towards the next generation of Pakistan cricket.
Tour Overview
The Pakistan U19 tour of England 2026 is a five-match series comprising:
- 1 Youth Test (4-Day match)
- 4 Youth ODIs
The series kicks off with the marquee four-day fixture in Arundel and concludes over two weeks later in Wormsley, with the squad crisscrossing the English countryside for a mix of red-ball and white-ball cricket. This format is fairly standard for youth bilateral tours in England, where the England and Wales Cricket Board typically schedules age-group fixtures at traditional, scenic outgrounds rather than the country’s major international stadiums.
Full Match Schedule
Here is the complete fixture list for the Pakistan Under-19 tour of England 2026:
| Match | Date | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Youth Test (4-Day) | September 2–5, 2026 | Arundel Castle Cricket Club Ground, Arundel |
| 1st Youth ODI | September 9, 2026 | Arundel Castle Cricket Club Ground, Arundel |
| 2nd Youth ODI | September 12, 2026 | Woodbridge Road, Guildford |
| 3rd Youth ODI | September 14, 2026 | Sir Paul Getty’s Ground, Wormsley |
| 4th Youth ODI | September 16, 2026 | Sir Paul Getty’s Ground, Wormsley |
The tour effectively splits into three legs. The opening leg is built around Arundel, which hosts both the four-day Youth Test and the first ODI, giving the players extended time to settle into one venue before the series moves on. The middle leg takes the teams to Guildford’s Woodbridge Road ground for the second ODI, before the series wraps up with a doubleheader-style finish at Wormsley, where the third and fourth ODIs are played just two days apart.
The Venues: A Look at England’s Iconic Cricket Outgrounds
One of the charms of youth and second-string cricket tours to England is the choice of venues — often historic, picturesque grounds tucked away from the bustle of major Test match cities.
Arundel Castle Cricket Club Ground is arguably the most famous of the three venues on this tour. Nestled in the grounds of Arundel Castle in West Sussex, it is one of the most photogenic cricket grounds in the world, framed by the castle itself and rolling parkland. It has long served as a traditional starting point for touring international sides in England, hosting warm-up fixtures against sides like Duke of Norfolk’s XI before major tours. Handing this ground both the opening Youth Test and the first ODI gives Pakistan’s young cricketers the chance to adjust to the surroundings, the Dukes ball, and typical early-September English conditions before the squad moves on.
Woodbridge Road in Guildford, home of Guildford Cricket Club, is another traditional English club venue that has hosted a number of representative and age-group fixtures over the years. It offers a slightly different test — a tighter, more enclosed ground compared to the open expanse at Arundel — and will host the second Youth ODI of the series on September 12.
Sir Paul Getty’s Ground at Wormsley, located in Buckinghamshire, is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful private cricket grounds anywhere in the world. Built within the grounds of Wormsley Park by the late Sir Paul Getty, a passionate cricket enthusiast, the ground is known for its immaculate outfield and idyllic countryside setting. It will host the final two Youth ODIs of the series on September 14 and 16, bringing the tour to a close.
Pakistan U19’s Build-Up: A Team in Red-Hot Form
What makes this tour particularly interesting is the form and momentum Pakistan’s Under-19 side carries into it. Over the last year, this batch of players has established itself as one of the strongest age-group units Pakistan has produced in some time.
Led by captain Farhan Yousaf, Pakistan U19 lifted the ACC Men’s Under-19 Asia Cup in December 2025, beating a star-studded India side by a commanding 191 runs in the final in Dubai. That win was built on contributions from batter Sameer Minhas, who struck a match-defining 172 off 113 balls in the final, and fast bowler Ali Raza, who backed up the batting effort with a four-wicket haul to seal the title.
Pakistan then carried that winning momentum into January 2026, claiming the tri-series in Zimbabwe, which also featured Afghanistan and hosts Zimbabwe, before heading into the biennial ICC Men’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup, co-hosted by Zimbabwe and Namibia. At the World Cup, Pakistan’s campaign was solid without being spectacular — the side won three of their five matches before bowing out at the Super Six stage, a result that, while short of the ultimate prize, still reflected the overall strength and depth of the squad assembled under Yousaf’s leadership.
Fast bowler Ali Raza has been a standout performer across this cycle. Having already featured at the 2024 edition of the Under-19 World Cup as a 15-year-old, where he picked up nine wickets in three matches including a stunning 4-for-34 against Australia in the semi-final, Raza has developed into one of the most watched young pace prospects in world cricket. His control and ability to extract bounce and movement in English conditions could make him a key figure once again on this tour, particularly given how well the Dukes ball tends to reward disciplined seam bowling on the traditional English outgrounds this series will be played on.
Alongside Raza, the batting unit built around Sameer Minhas and others who delivered in Dubai will look to translate white-ball form from the subcontinent into the very different demands of English conditions — where the ball moves more, the outfields are often lush and slower, and patience with the bat becomes just as important as intent.
What This Tour Means for Pakistan Cricket’s Pipeline
Bilateral Under-19 tours rarely make front-page headlines in the way senior international cricket does, but they play an outsized role in shaping a cricket board’s long-term pipeline. For the Pakistan Cricket Board, sending this particular group to England so soon after their World Cup campaign is a deliberate decision — it allows selectors and coaches to assess how key players adapt to English seaming and swinging conditions, which historically pose a very different challenge compared to subcontinent or African pitches.
England has traditionally been one of the toughest touring assignments for Asian sides at every level, from senior internationals down to age-group cricket. The moving Dukes ball, cooler September temperatures, and the tactical discipline required in English conditions test technique in ways that white-ball cricket in Dubai or 50-over cricket in Zimbabwe simply cannot replicate. A four-day match at the start of the tour is particularly valuable in this respect — it gives batters extended time in the middle to work out lengths and lines, and gives bowlers, especially the pace unit spearheaded by Ali Raza, a genuine opportunity to test their skills with the Dukes ball across longer spells.
For several of these players, this tour could also serve as an audition of sorts for higher honours. Historically, strong showings on age-group tours to England have helped fast-track promising cricketers into domestic and franchise conversations back home, and eventually towards Pakistan A and senior team consideration. Names like Sameer Minhas and Ali Raza, already firmly on the radar after their exploits in Dubai and Zimbabwe, will be under close watch from both Pakistani fans and English observers keen to see how the next crop of subcontinental talent fares in home conditions.
England U19: The Hosts’ Perspective
While much of the buildup understandably centers on Pakistan’s stellar recent run, England’s Under-19 setup will also be eager to test itself against a side that has beaten some of the best young talent in world cricket over the past twelve months, including a marquee win over India’s U19 side in the Asia Cup final. Home conditions and local knowledge of grounds like Arundel, Guildford, and Wormsley should work in England’s favour, and a home Youth Test followed by four ODIs gives their selectors a good sample size to evaluate their next generation of players before subsequent age-group assignments.
Format Breakdown: What to Expect
The tour’s structure — one four-day “Test” style match followed by four 50-over fixtures — mirrors the format increasingly used by cricket boards for Under-19 bilateral tours, striking a balance between assessing red-ball technique and white-ball skills. The early four-day fixture at Arundel, running from September 2 to 5, gives both sides a proper multi-day contest to open the series, testing patience, technique against the moving ball, and the ability to bowl long, disciplined spells — skills that don’t always get tested in the shorter formats that dominate junior cricket calendars today.
The four ODIs that follow will likely determine the overall “series outcome” in the eyes of most fans and pundits, given how white-ball-dominant modern age-group cricket has become. With Arundel hosting the series opener on September 9, Guildford stepping in for the second match on September 12, and Wormsley hosting back-to-back finales on September 14 and 16, the scheduling gives both squads a compact but demanding fortnight of cricket across three distinct venues and pitches.
Pakistan’s Under-19 History in England
Pakistan’s age-group sides have a long and storied association with England as a touring destination. Historically, English conditions have been viewed as the ultimate proving ground for young Pakistani cricketers, given how different swing, seam, and slower outfields are compared to the wickets typically encountered back home or across the Gulf and African circuits where much of contemporary age-group cricket is now played. Pakistan famously won the ICC Under-19 World Cup in 2004 and again in 2006, both eras built on pace-heavy attacks that thrived when given the chance to test their skills on English-style pitches before those global tournaments. That legacy is part of why tours like this one carry extra significance beyond the results on the scoreboard — they are as much about technical development as they are about silverware.
For the current group, most of whom would have grown up watching senior stars like Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah make their names bowling with the Kookaburra and SG balls on faster, flatter surfaces, adapting to the Dukes ball’s pronounced seam movement and the English weather’s unpredictability is a genuinely different skill set. Historically, sides that have managed this transition well at the age-group level — learning to bowl fuller, straighter lines and building patient, technically correct batting techniques — have gone on to produce cricketers who transition smoothly into senior international cricket, including on tours of England itself. With Pakistan’s senior team also touring England for a three-Test series later in August and September 2026, there is a natural symmetry to having the next generation gain first-hand experience of English conditions in the same window, even if the two tours are entirely separate assignments.
Travelling Fans and Local Following
Given that all three venues on this tour — Arundel, Guildford, and Wormsley — sit within reasonable travelling distance of London and the wider South East of England, the series is likely to draw healthy interest from the local Pakistani diaspora community, which has historically turned out in strong numbers for age-group and A-team fixtures involving Pakistan sides in England. These traditional club grounds tend to offer a far more intimate viewing experience than international stadiums, with fans often able to watch from just a few feet behind the boundary rope, adding to the charm of following age-group cricket in England.
Final Word
The Pakistan Under-19 tour of England 2026 may not carry the spotlight of a senior bilateral series, but for followers of Pakistan cricket’s development pipeline, it is a tour worth watching closely. Fresh off an Asia Cup triumph, a tri-series win in Zimbabwe, and a Super Six finish at the World Cup, this Pakistan U19 group — led by Farhan Yousaf and featuring standout performers like Ali Raza and Sameer Minhas — now faces the different but equally important challenge of English conditions. Across five matches spread over two weeks at three of England’s most storied age-group cricket venues, this series will offer an early glimpse of some of the names Pakistan cricket fans may be hearing a lot more of in the years to come.









