Twenty Pakistan players will travel to England on Sunday ahead of the side’s three-Test and three-match T20I series in August and September after six out of 10 players who had earlier tested positive for Covid-19 returned negative results upon retesting.
Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan and Wahab Riaz all tested negative having previously tested positive for coronavirus. They will not travel to the UK however until a second test returns negative.
Players who have again tested positive are Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Kashif Bhatti and Imran Khan, along with the team’s masseur, Malang Ali.
Fast bowler Musa Khan and Pakistan U19 captain and wicketkeeper Rohail Nazir (who both passed coronavirus tests on Thursday) will join up with the 18 players and 11 player support personnel who have tested negative for Covid-19 in both rounds of testing this week.
A statement from the Pakistan Cricket Board said: “Upon arrival in Manchester, the squad will be transported to Worcestershire where they will undergo the England and Wales Cricket Board testing before completing their 14-day isolation period, during which they will be allowed to train and practice. The side will move to Derbyshire on 13 July.”
PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan added: “This was a challenging and unprecedented process that we have conducted and I am pleased that following a second round of testing, we are able to confirm 20 players and 11 player support personnel will travel to Manchester on Sunday.
“Due to the increasing number of national cases and availability of testing labs in some players’ hometowns, I think the PCB medical panel have done a good job to get us through this process. Based on the national spread of players, there were always going to be some logistical challenges; we have taken a number of learnings from the process that we will take forward with us.”
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Twenty Pakistan players travelling to England on Sunday:
Azhar Ali (captain), Babar Azam (vice-captain), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Ahmad, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Musa Khan, Naseem Shah, Rohail Nazir, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Yasir Shah.
