Sri Lanka will split their tour to Pakistan over two legs in January and February, playing in total, three ODIs and two Tests. A gap in between of over two weeks thus paves the way for Sri Lanka to host a potential one-day series against India.

After much negotiation and tweaking of provisional itineraries, Sri Lanka will now arrive in Pakistan on January 18 to play three day-night ODIs, leave and then come back on February 14th to play two Tests.

The Tests will be played on February 21 and March 1 at Karachi and Lahore respectively.

The Karachi Test will be Pakistan's first five-day game since the third Test against India in Bangalore in December 2007. Legspinner Danish Kaneria is likely to make his first international appearance after a year on the sidelines - he is not a regular in Pakistan's limited-overs teams. It will also be the first assignment under recently-appointed captain Younis Khan, who replaced Shoaib Malik after the 2-1 loss to Sri Lanka in the ODIs, including an embarrassing 234-run defeat in the decider in Lahore.

The first Test between Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be played on 21st February 2009 at National Stadium, Karachi.