All you need to know about the Upcoming Pakistan England Series

Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic, cricket fans across the world will get to see some live international cricket matches soon. Pakistan cricket team departed for England on Sunday. Pakistan and England will be playing 3 tests and 3 T20s and the series will start in August but the exact date and schedule has not been finalised yet. Before this series, England will be hosting West Indies for a three match test series which starts from July 8. This series will be played without a crowd and that is something which seems to be the new normal atleast for next few months till the pandemic cases reduce significantly throughout the world.

10 Pakistani players had tested positive for Covid-19 and did not depart along with remaining 20 players. But 6 of these players have now tested negative during their the second round of tests conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board. These six players are Mohammed Hafeez, Wahab Riaz, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Hasnain. Although they tested negative, but these players will not board the flight to England as they will undergo another round of testing in some days and will then be finally sent to England with arrangements made by Pakistan Cricket Board.

Shoaib Akhtar on Mohammed Hafeez Tweet-

According to former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar  Mohammad Hafeez should have discussed with the Pakistan Cricket Board regarding his outcome of the Covid-19 test and should not have shared it online via twitter.

After Tested positive COVID-19 acc to PCB testing Report yesterday,as 2nd opinion & for satisfaction I personally went to Test it again along with my family and here I along with my all family members are reported Negetive Alham du Lillah. May Allah keep us all safe 🤲🏼 pic.twitter.com/3WKOkXisdp

— Mohammad Hafeez (@MHafeez22) June 24, 2020

Top order Batsman Hafeez was said to have tested positive for Covid-19 after the PCB had conducted tests on Pakistan’s cricketers ahead of their departure for the England tour. But only one day later, Hafeez got tested again from a private medical facility where he tested negative. He tweeted about the same telling everyone that he was negative. However the Board did not like Hafeez’s action and so did many former players. Akhtar said on his YouTube channel that Pakistan Cricket Board did show mismanagement but he criticized Hafeez for taking the matter public. He further said that more and more testing needs to be done.

11 non-playing staff have also departed for England. Pakistan ODI team captain Babar Azam shared a picture from inside the plane along with some other players. He wrote that he was looking forward to this historic tour to England and it is always great to play in this country.

On our way to another historic Pakistan tour to England. Its always great to play in England and I look forward to get on this journey with our talented bunch of players. Fans, as always we would be in need of you prayers, love and unconditional support. #PAKvENG #RiseAndRise pic.twitter.com/8KLFQjAYNU

— Babar Azam (@babarazam258) June 28, 2020

After reaching England, The Pakistan players and staff will remain in a 14-day isolation period in Worcester. After that the team will be visiting The Incora County Ground in Derbyshire on July 13 to start training.

English cricket board(ECB) had earlier said that the series will go ahead but the players who have been tested positive will not be allowed to play due to safety concerns. The Pakistan Cricket board CEO said that people  do not need to panic as there is still a lot of time for those players to recover and participate in the upcoming series against England.

With so many Pakistan players testing positive, it did come as a surprise as none of the West Indies players tested positive for Covid-19 when they departed for England. Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra also took to twitter and wished all the players who tested positive for Covid-19 a speedy recovery. But he asked the question also about the reason for so many players catching the virus and secondly will the England tour go ahead with so many players already testing positive.

England’s home season has been delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic but finally the fans will get to see some action and players will be back on field after a long time of lockdown and quarantine. It has been frustrating time for everyone and now the players will once again return to the field and bring joy to the faces of fans across the world. But first we all have to see how the West Indies and England series goes. If everything goes right and Covid-19 does not cause any significant hindrance in that series, then Pakistan-England series will also definitely get a green signal and the cricket fans will once again get to see two top teams competing against each other at international level.

The fast bowlers will play a key role in English Conditions and the Pakistan squad has included fast bowlers like Shaheen Afridi , Mohammad Abbas as well as 17-year-old Naseem Shah. On the other side, England have pacers like Jofra Archer, James Anderson and Stuart Broad who can make even the best batsman struggle in these conditions and the amount of experience they have is unmatchable. So Pakistan batsman will be tested , especially when playing competitive cricket after such a long time. But Weather will also be an important factor and that may go a little bit in Pakistan’s favour as in August the weather will be dry and not very overcast so the bowlers will have a little bit of disadvantage. Due to Covid-19, England will miss out on one more advantage of playing at home and that is the large number of people coming out to support them in the stadium.

Here is the 20 member Pakistan team which has departed for England-

Azhar Ali (C), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Ahmad, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Abbas, Musa Khan, Naseem Shah,Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah,  Rohail Nazir, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Yasir Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood.