In ICC Champions Trophy Semi-Final India is set to face Australia in Dubai while New Zealand will face South Africa in Lahore.
The match between India and Australia is set to take place on Tuesday.
However, New Zealand team will travel to Lahore to meet South Africa on Wednesday.
Due to complicated scheduling, both Australia and South Africa had already flown to Dubai, with an ICC official stating that the decision had been made to give the team that plays the semi-final in Dubai (Australia in this scenario) on March 4 the most time to prepare for that match.
However, this puts South Africa in the unfavourable situation of having recently flown from Pakistan to Dubai, only to return to Pakistan shortly thereafter.
The complicated scheduling resulted from India not playing any of their tournament games in Pakistan, and they were scheduled to play the semi-finals in Dubai regardless of their Group A standings.
Such a scenario became all but unavoidable when India refused to go to Pakistan for the competition, despite Pakistan’s official status as the sole host.
The PCB has spent several months attempting to persuade India to visit Pakistan, including a proposal to host all of their games in Lahore.
However, the BCCI stated that the Indian government did not provide the team permission to play cricket in Lahore.
On Monday, New Zealand will fly to Lahore early in the morning from Dubai, while South Africa will return to Pakistan later that day after spending almost 36 hours in Dubai.
