Pakistan cricket team announce revised 20-man squad for upcoming tour of England

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Saturday announced a 'reworked' 20-man squad for their tour of England. This comes in the wake of ten Pakistan cricket team players becoming unavailable for the tour after testing COVID-19 positive in the first round of tests conducted by the PCB.

18-year old wicket-keeper Rohail Nazir and talented fast bowler Musa Khan find themselves part of the squad that will be flying to England, whereas Bilal Asif, Imran Butt, and Mohammad Nawaz, who were announced as reserves this week, have been omitted from the squad.

Shoaib Malik is also not part of the group, as he will join the team on the 24th of July after spending quality time with his family in India.

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Pakistan Cricket's squad for England tour

Squad: Abid Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (Test captain), Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam (T20I captain), 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 and Rohail Nazir.

"With the Test series being played first in August, Misbah is satisfied with the group of players that are traveling on Sunday as the focus will be on red-ball preparation. Misbah understands that flexibility and adaptability will be needed with his training and practice schedule while operating under various guidelines," PCB CEO Wasim Khan said.

Out of the ten players who had tested positive initially, six have now tested negative in the second round of tests.

These players will be cleared to fly to England as soon as they test negative once more in the next test, which will be organised ''at some stage'' next week. These Pakistan cricket team players include Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan and Wahab Riaz.

As for the remaining four players, Kashif Bhatti, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali, and Imran Khan, whose reports have come out positive again, they will have to test negative two times consecutively and if and when they do so, they will join the rest of the squad in England. For the moment, they have been asked to strictly home-quarantine.

"I want to reassure the players and the official left behind that the PCB will provide them best support and look after them during the quarantine period," Wasim Khan said. "It needs to be remembered that these players were asymptomatic, which means their chances of regaining complete fitness are higher and brighter than most. As soon as these players test negative twice through the PCB testing process they will be flown to England to join the squad."

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Pakistan cricket team's itinerary for England tour

The Pakistan Cricket squad, consisting of 20 players and 11 support staff, will leave for England on Sunday, June 28 via a chartered aircraft. They will be quarantined in Worcester for 14 days and will train there as well, before moving to Derbyshire’s Incora County Ground on July 13.

The Pakistan cricket team team will play three Tests and three T20Is against the 2019 World Cup winners, the schedule of which is expected to be finalised in the upcoming days.