Six Pakistan Players Test Negative for COVID-19 Again, Set to Join Squad in England Tour

Six Pakistan players - Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan and Wahab Riaz - have tested negative for Covid-19 for the second time in three days, Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed on Tuesday.

They are now eligible to join the Pakistan squad in Worcestershire for the tour of England.

The players were re-tested on Monday following a first negative test on June 26.

The Pakistan squad left for England on June 28 without 10 players who had tested positive for the virus. Six of the 10 have now tested negative, which makes them eligible to be a part of the tour again.

"The PCB will now start making their travel arrangements and the departure details will be shared in due course," the board said in a statement.

There was some confusion through the last week after Pakistan named players who tested positive for the virus. It included Hafeez, who did a private test the following day.

Hafeez took to Twitter to show that the private test turned out to be negative, which did not go well with the PCB. The board reprimanded him, with CEO Wasim Khan saying:

“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.

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“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,” Khan said on Cricket Baaz Youtube Channel.

Pakistan are due to play three Tests against England in August followed by three Twenty20 internationals.