PCB announces 20 players to leave for UK, COVID-infected players to travel post recovery

In a major update on Saturday, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has finalized a list of 20 players and 11 support staff members that will fly to England on Sunday for their upcoming tour. This comes after 10 players of the 29-man squad had tested COVID-19 positive on Wednesday. The PCB has informed that no player, other than the 10 announced earlier, has tested positive in the second round of tests. The squad will, however, be tested again upon their arrival in England. 

As the UK government has denied permission for players who have tested COVID positive to tour the country, the PCB has added Musa Khan and Pakistan U19 captain and wicketkeeper Rohail Nazir in the 20-man squad set to leave for England on Sunday. Cliffe Deacon and Waqar Younis will join the side directly from South Africa and Australia, respectively, while Shoaib Malik is expected to travel around 24 July.

Here is the list of 20 players:

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The PCB has also announced that once the players who have tested positive, test negative, they will be sent to England to join the Men in Green. Reflecting upon the players who have tested positive, the PCB announced that six players have tested negative in the retests. These players are: Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan and Wahab Riaz. Meanwhile, Players who have again tested positive are: Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Kashif Bhatti and Imran Khan, along with Malang Ali (masseur).

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The six players who have now tested negative will undergo third round of testing at some stage next week and if their tests remain negative, then the PCB will make arrangements to send them to England. While players that have been infected will undergo tests following the completion of the quarantine period and will be sent to England following two negative tests.

Pakistan tour of England 2020

The 1992 World Cup winners will be touring England for a three-match Test series that will be followed by a three-match T20I series from July 30 to September 2, 2020. Meanwhile, the PCB also announced that spin legend Mushtaq Ahmed has been named as the bowling coach for the upcoming tour while former captain as well as batting great Younis Khan has been appointed as the batting coach.

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