Pakistan men’s cricket team left for the United Kingdom on Sunday along with coach Misbah-ul-Haq for their Test and T20I series against England. The teams are scheduled to play 3 Tests and 3 T20Is behind closed doors.

All 20 members of Pakistan’s touring party have been tested prior to travel, with those testing positive for Covid-19 not permitted to travel with the advance group on Sunday.

The players and members of the support staff made sure to take all precautions as they left for England from Karachi. Everybody had masks on and were seen maintaining social distance from each other.

The 20-member squad, including 11 support staff officials, will be put under a 14-day quarantine period in Worcester before transferring to Derbyshire’s Incora County Ground on July 13.

The 10 players and one staff member who tested positive for Covid-19 are self-isolating in their homes in Pakistan, and will join the tour when they are cleared.

The tour was originally to begin on July 30, but the pandemic delayed all tours, and England’s 3-test series against the West Indies next month isn’t scheduled to end until July 28.

Meanwhile, of the 10 Pakistan cricketers who had tested positive for the coronavirus earlier, six have returned negative in the recent test conducted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).

The players who were tested negative were Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan, and Wahab Riaz.

The cricketers who were once again tested positive for Covid-19 were Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Kashif Bhatti and Imran Khan. Malang Ali, who is part of the support staff has also again tested positive.

“All 18 players and 11 player support personnel, who had tested negative for Covid-19 in the first round of tests on Monday, have again returned negative in Thursday’s retests.”

“Besides the 29 members, tests of fast bowler Musa Khan and Pakistan U19 captain and wicketkeeper Rohail Nazir, along with three other reserve players, were also conducted on Thursday and they have also returned negative,” PCB said in a press release.

Players to leave for England on Sunday: Azhar Ali (captain), Babar Azam (vice-captain), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Ahmad, Imad Wasim, Imam-ul-Haq, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Abbas, Musa Khan, Naseem Shah, Rohail Nazir, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, and Yasir Shah.