Mohammad Hafeez, Wahab Riaz among six Pakistan cricketers who test negative for COVID-19Â
Mohammad Hafeez had earlier tested positive for COVID-19
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Mohammad Hafeez and Wahab Riaz are among the six Pakistan cricketers who have returned negative results for COVID-19 after 10 players tested positive ahead of the England tour. The ECB were scheduled to fly out a 29-man squad on June 28 but now a traveling party of 20 will leave Pakistan.
A three-match T20I series followed by as many Tests against Pakistan, at home, was announced by the England and Wales Cricket Board last month. The English board also announced that all members of the Pakistan squads will be flown into the UK via a charter plane at the end of the month for the series starting on July 30. Ahead of flying out to England, ten Pakistan cricketers tested positive for COVID-19, as reported earlier this week. However, as of Saturday, six of those ten Pakistani cricketers have returned negative results, according to PCB chief executive Wasim Khan. Those six cricketers include Mohammad Hafeez, Wahab Riaz, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, and Mohammad Hasnain.Â
Wasim Khan further added that Kashif Bhatti, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali and Imran Khan had tested positive again, as had team masseur Malang Ali. All the players and support staffers who had tested negative earlier were also retested, and there was no change in their status.
However, given players' need to return two negative tests before being able to enter the UK, the six previously positive players will not be on the ECB-arranged charter plane that takes the rest of the squad members to England on Sunday. The PCB announced they will be sent as soon as they returned that second negative test.
"The ECB contacted us at first and said since the positive tests were carried out on the 21st, seven days will have lapsed and there may be an opportunity for players to travel on the 28th. Because in nine of the 10 players, we found antibodies, which suggested they were coming to the end of it. But we changed it because the ECB have now told us that based on UK regulations, anybody to have tested positive will need to provide evidence that they have had two negative tests before they can travel. We went on the advice they were giving us earlier, but since they told us the regulations had changed, we followed their protocol," Wasim said, as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.
Given the situation and the protocols, Pakistan have named a new 20-man squad that will travel on Sunday (June 28) for their tour of England. Fast bowler Musa Khan and wicketkeeper Rohail Nazir are the new names in the reworked squad, nine down from the initial 29-man squad named earlier.
Squad: Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (Test captain), Babar Azam (Test vice-captain and T20I captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Abbas, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Imad Wasim, Yasir Shah, Musa Khan, Rohail Nazir
