An England and Wale Cricket Board chartered flight has flown in a 31-strong Pakistan contingent, including 20 players and 11 team staff, from Lahore.
The entire squad, which had been confirmed negative for COVID-19 infection during the tests arranged by the Pakistan Cricket Board, will again be tested for novel coronavirus by the ECB. The touring party thereafter will have to stay quarantined for two weeks in Worcestershire
Two more members, bowling coach Waqar Younis and physiotherapis Cliff Deacon, will join the squad from Australia and South Africa respectively, states a report by PCB.
After serving the mandatory isolation term, the contingent will go to Derbyshire on July 13 where they will be getting in some practice.
The players who had tested positive initially but reported negative subsequently have been excluded from the tour party. They will leave for England later.
Mohammad Hafeez, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Hasnain, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan have all tested negative after testing positive in their first tests.
Kashif Bhatti, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali and Imran Khan confirmed to have contracted the virus when their second test also returned positive.
While speaking to media before the team’s departure form Lahore, limited-overs skipper Babar Azam said that the absence of fans will be felt. “We’re going to miss our fans. I got a lot of support when I played in Somerset last year,” he said.
Test skipper Azhar Ali promised to give fans a memorable performance. “Fans have always been the biggest stakeholder but since they will not be there, we’ll be giving some great moments for fans to enjoy at home,” he said.
Squad: 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.
Pakistan will play three Tests and three T20I against England.