Pakistan Cricket Squad to Leave for England on June 28

The Pakistan cricket team will depart for England on June 28 to play three tests and three Twenty20 internationals games.

The Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Saturday that the squad will be quarantined in Derbyshire for 14 days, under constraints in place for the virus outbreak, but will be permitted to exercise throughout that time.

Selectors have chosen an extended squad of 29 for the England series so that replacements are prepared in the event a player falls sick.

The Pakistanis had not played competitive games since March 17 when the national Twenty20 tournament — the PSL — was suspended due to the pandemic.

The PCB declared that aside from training and exercise sessions in England, “there will be intra-squad games to recompense for the necessity of practice matches due to non-availability of native teams as the ECB is yet to start its domestic season.”

England will face off West Indies in a three-test series next month before facing Pakistan.

The Covid-19 tests of Pakistan’s whole England bound squad comprising 43 members — involving 29 players and 14 crew — will be taken on June 22 at their cities of residency.

The team will depart for England on June 28 through a chartered flight to be managed by the England and Cricket Board (ECB), the hosts of the series, comprising three Tests and several T20Is, to be held in August and September. The full course of the tour is expected to be announced soon.

The Covid-19 tests will be taken in Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, and in some other cities.

Pakistan contests England in three Test and Twenty20 matches beginning next month. As with next month’s three-Test games versus West Indies, the two series will be challenged in a bio-secure environment.

The three-match T20 series will be played from August 29 to September 2.