Seven more Pakistan players test positive for coronavirus ahead of tour to England

Wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan is among those who have tested positive
AFP /AFP via Getty Images

Pakistan insist their proposed tour of England this summer is 'very much on track', despite another seven players testing positive for coronavirus.

The two sides are scheduled to play a Test and T20 series on English soil later this summer, with Pakistan due to fly to England from Lahore on Sunday, though no dates for the games have yet been confirmed.

On Monday, three of the players named in Pakistan’s 29-man squad for the tour - Haider Ali, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan – tested positive, despite being asymptomatic.

On Tuesday, following further tests, another seven players were confirmed as having the virus: Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Hasnain, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Hafeez, Wahab Riaz and Imran Khan.

Shadab Khan was one of three players who returned a positive test on Monday 
AFP via Getty Images

PCB chief executive Wasim Khan said: "As regards the players who have tested positive, we will continue to monitor and support them, including conducting antibody tests, and as soon as they test negative, they will be flown to join the squad in England.

"At the moment, they have been advised to go into self-isolation so that they not only recover quickly but also prevent their other family members from being infected.

"The tour to England is very much on track and the side will depart as per schedule on 28 June.

"Fortunately, all the first-choice red-ball squad, barring Mohammad Rizwan, are negative, which means they can start training and practising immediately after they have been tested and given the all-clear when they arrive in England."

Jimmy Anderson: English cricket needs to do more to improve racial equality

Following the first three tests, England director of cricket Ashley Giles had said he was confident the series would go ahead.

“It’s a concern and we’re most concerned about those players who tested positive and concerned about their welfare,” he said. “At the moment, I don’t think the series is in doubt.

“We’re far enough away from the start of the Test series to not worry about that too much for the moment. There’s some more Test results coming out later from the rest of the group, so we’ll see what that says, but we’re still hopeful that the Pakistan team will be arriving in the country fairly soon.”

England are due to finally begin the cricketing summer in a three-match series against the West Indies, starting on July 8.

The Windies arrived in the UK earlier this month and on Tuesday began a full-scale intra-squad warm-up match at Old Trafford, where they have been based.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in