ENG v PAK 2020: Six Pakistan players to join squad in UK after twice testing COVID-19 negative 

These six players are among the ten who had earlier been declared positive by the PCB.

The first batch of players has already reached England | AFP Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan and Wahab Riaz tested negative of COVID-19 for the second time in three days and will now join Pakistan's squad for the tour of England, confirmed Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday (June 30). 

The players were re-tested on Monday following a first negative test on June 26 and will now travel to the UK for national team's three-Test and three-T20I series that they were earlier selected for. 

WATCH - Pakistan Cricket Team arrive in Manchester for bilateral series against England

These six players are part of the list of ten Pakistani cricketers that were declared positive and without whom the batch of 20 players and 11 support staff personnel that tested negative departed for the UK on Sunday (June 28). 

"The PCB will now start making their travel arrangements and the departure details will be shared in due course," reads the board's media release. 

There was a controversy involving Hafeez, who after resulting positive, had done a private test the very next day where he was declared negative. The news of the development was broken by the veteran cricketer himself via Twitter. 

The fact that Hafeez didn't keep the board in the loop of the private test, however, didn't go down well at all, said PCB CEO Wasim Khan. 

"I spoke to Hafeez today and I made it clear to him our disappointment at the way he had handled this entire affair. As an individual, he has a right to take a private test but he should have spoken to us first because he created a problem for us. This is not the first time that Hafeez has breached our rules in the media," said Khan on 'Cricket Baaz' Youtube Channel.

“He doesn’t have a central contract but once he was selected for the Pakistan team he has to abide by the rules and regulations for all players especially pertaining to the use of social media. We are still looking at the matter because it has caused us a lot of problems," he added.

The tourists will now quarantine for 14 days in Worcester and then move to Derbyshire to advance their preparations for the start of the Test series. 

The dates and venues haven't yet been officially announced, but the series is expected to take place in August-September. 

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 30 Jun, 2020

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