Pakistan will open their T20 WC 2021 campaign against arch-rivals India on October 24.
Mohammad Hafeez, who will turn 41 next month, is currently receiving treatment at his home in Lahore and it remains to be seen whether he regains fitness ahead of the ICC mega event in the middle east.
“It depends on the severity of the dengue virus that one has contracted but yes, it is an illness that leaves one pretty weak and it takes around a month to regenerate platelets and make a full recovery,” a local doctor said.
According to a reliable source, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has said that the medical panel of PCB is in touch with Hafeez and will also be keeping a close eye on his treatment and recovery.
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During the first leg of this National Championship, Hafeez had complained about food poisoning while staying at the team hotel in Rawalpindi, but as his condition didn’t improve, the cricketer went to Lahore and was diagnosed with dengue.
Hafeez, despite his poor form of late, is an automatic selection for the upcoming showpiece event considering a heap of runs in late 2019 and 2020 in T20Is.
As far as Pakistan are concerned, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has given a deadline of October 10 for all the participating nations to make changes to their squads announced earlier this month.
Teams are also allowed to have traveling reserves with them in the tournament at their own expenses as the ICC is footing the bill for only 15 players and eight officials for each team.
(With PTI Inputs)