PSL 2021: Islamabad United’s Australian spinner Fawad Ahmed tests positive for COVID-19

Karachi: Australian leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed tested positive for COVID-19 while playing in the Pakistan Super League (PSL) and has been put in isolation, his club said Monday.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said all remaining members of Islamabad United have tested negative.

“One of our players, Fawad Ahmed tested positive... and was immediately put in isolation two days ago,” Islamabad said in a statement.

Thanks for all the kind messages, please keep remember me in ur prayers, much needed 🙌🏽 @IsbUnited @thePSLt20, and please everyone stay safe 👍🏽

— Fawad Ahmed (@bachaji23) March 1, 2021

In his only appearance in PSL this year, Ahmed took 1-40 against Peshawar Zalmi on Saturday. Islamabad lost by six wickets.

Two-time champion Islamabad were due to meet Quetta Gladiators at 7 pm on Monday, but the PCB said the match will be delayed for two hours.

It’s the first COVID-19 positive test in Pakistan’s premier Twenty20 league, which began on 20 February.

On 21 February, Peshawar Zalmi captain Wahab Riaz and head coach Daren Sammy were allowed to rejoin their squad after their appeal against a quarantine for breaching COVID-19 protocols was accepted by the PCB.

Riaz and Sammy breached the team’s bio-secure bubble on 19 February when they met with their team owner, who was not part of the bubble. But they rejoined the team following two negative COVID-19 tests after they were spared the three-day quarantine when their appeal was accepted by the PSL committee.