Veteran Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez among six other Pakistan cricketers who had all tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week, have all returned negative on Saturday. Meanwhile, Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed 20 players and 11 player support personnel, who had all returned negative for coronavirus earlier this week, will travel on a chartered flight to Manchester on Sunday morning for the three-Test and three T20I series against England to be played in August and September, after their second round of tests for the dreaded virus returned negative.
Out of the 10 players who had tested positive earlier during PCB's testing programme - Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan and Wahab Riaz are the six players to have returned negative in retests. Players who have tested positive again are Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Kashif Bhatti, and Imran Khan, along with Malang Ali (masseur).
These six players who have tested negative will undergo a third round of testing next week and on returning negative, PCB will make arrangements for their departure for England series. Meanwhile, the five others, who have tested positive again, has been advised by PCB's medical team to observe strict quarantine.
All 18 players and 11 player support personnel who had earlier returned negative for COVID-19 on Monday in the first round of testing, returned the same result in the retests conducted on Thursday and hence have been cleared by PCB to travel to England.
Besides these 29 members, pacer Musa Khan and Pakistan U19 captain and wicketkeeper Rohail Nazir, along with three other reserve players have also tested negative again and have been included in the first group of travelling team that will leave on Sunday.
Pakistan members who will be leaving for Manchester on Sunday...
Players – 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, and Yasir Shah. Zafar Gohar, the left-arm spinner who played an ODI in 2015, will join the side from England and will only be involved in pre-match preparations.
Player support personnel – Mansoor Rana (manager), Misbah-ul-Haq (head coach), Younis Khan (batting coach), Mushtaq Ahmed (spin bowling coach), Shahid Aslam (assistant coach), Abdul Majeed (fielding coach), Talha Butt (team analyst), Yasir Malik (strength and conditioning coach), Dr Sohail Saleem (team doctor), Lt Col (retd) Usman Riffat (security manager) and Raza Kitchlew (media and digital content manager).
