Pakistan players landed in the UAE on Wednesday evening for a historic T20 series against Afghanistan.
The neighbours and arch rivals will face off in a three-match series which begins at Sharjah Cricket Stadium from Friday.
Afghanistan were due to start their season with an ODI series against Australia this month but Cricket Australia refused to play over political considerations. Pakistan then agreed to play a short series.
All-rounder Shadab Khan will lead a new-look Pakistan team in the absence of regular captain Babar Azam and several senior players.
Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Rizwan and Shaheen Afridi have been rested by the Pakistan board in a bid to better manage their workloads following a frenetic finish to the Pakistan Super League won by Lahore Qalandars on Saturday.
It means young players like Ihsanullah, Saim Ayub, and Zaman Khan will get a chance to shine at the international level after impressing in the PSL.
The series is expected to be action-packed. Both teams have faced off in multi-nation tournaments, with some matches witnessing serious crowd trouble and clashes between players in what has turned into a bitter rivalry.
This will be the first bilateral series between the teams. Both clashed in a one-off ODI and T20 match 10 years back.
The first T20 begins in Sharjah on Friday, with the second game on Sunday and the third on Monday. Ticket prices for the matches start at Dh45 and can be bought on platinumlist.net
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If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
