Mindful of distance, Pakistani cricketers wearing masks prepare for their trip to England, minus many infected teammates. AFP
Pakistan's cricket team left for its tour of England on Sunday without 10 players who tested positive for coronavirus at least once this week, the country’s cricket board said on Saturday.
The board’s CEO Wasim Khan said the players left behind can rejoin the squad of 18 players once they have taken two negative tests.
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Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Wahab Riaz, Imran Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain and Kashif Bhatti first tested positive earlier this week.
Follow-up tests found Bhatti, Rauf, Ali and Imran Khan were still positive.
Pakistan’s tour of England is set to include three Tests and three Twenty20 internationals.
The squad will have a 14-day isolation period on arrival before continuing their preparations ahead of the first Test with two four-day warm-up matches.
It is expected that the first Test will take place in Manchester in August but the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said the behind-closed-doors match schedule would be announced in “due course”.
Wasim Khan said Pakistan were observing ECB guidelines.
“We were given protocols by the ECB which we have followed. Players are likely to be tested five to seven times before the first Test in England and that is to be done for their safety,” he said.
The squad that flew out on Sunday is – Azhar Ali (Test captain), Babar Azam (Twenty20 captain), Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Imad Wasim, and Yasir Shah.
Reserve players Rohail Nazir and Musa Khan also flew out.
Pakistan is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases, with nearly 200,000 declared cases and more than 4,000 deaths, while cases are falling in Britain.
Test skipper Azhar Ali said the Pakistani tourist team is looking forward to playing in what will be some of the first Test matches since the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a global lockdown.
“All the players are excited after a tough period,” said Azhar on the eve of departure.
“Though a tour to England has always been challenging, our performances there on the last two tours [in 2016 and 2018] are encouraging and we will try to repeat those.”
Pakistan drew a four-Test series 2-2 in 2016 and a two-match series 1-1 two years later.
