A player from the 35-member Pakistan squad to tour South Africa has tested positive for COVID-19 a week before their departure.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has confirmed in a statement that only one player from the Pakistan squad has tested positive while all others have returned negative results. The entire squad will start training at the Gaddafi stadium in Lahore from Friday, March 18 barring the infected player.
PCB's statement read, "A total of 35 tests were conducted on the South Africa-bound Pakistan men's national cricket team on Tuesday, 16 March. All squad members have tested negative, except for one player."
Pakistan announces squads for tours of South Africa and Zimbabwe
"The player who has tested positive will undergo a repeat test on Thursday at his residence. If he tests negative, only then he will be eligible to travel to Lahore where he will remain in isolation for two more days before being retested," it added.
The Pakistan squad will travel to Johannesburg on March 26 to play 3 ODIs and 4 T20Is against the Proteas. They will leave the South African territory and travel to Bulawayo on April 17 to play 3 T20Is and 2 Tests against Zimbabwe.
Pakistan have announced the squads for all three formats:
ODI squad: Babar Azam (capt), Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafique, Haider Ali, Danish Aziz, Saud Shakeel, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Usman Qadir, Hasan Ali.
T20I squad: Babar Azam (capt), Shadab Khan, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Haider Ali, Danish Aziz, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Usman Qadir, Hasan Ali, Arshad Iqbal.
Test squad: Babar Azam (capt), Imran Butt, Abid Ali, Abdullah Shafique, Azhar Ali, Fawad Alam, Saud Shakeel, Agha Salman, Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Tabish Khan, Hasan Ali, Shahnawaz Dhani, Nauman Ali, Zahid Mahmood, Sajid Khan.
