Mohammad Hafeez undergoes COVID-19 test again personally; tests negative

Pakistan team is set to travel to the United Kingdom on June 28. But as many as 10 players from their 29-member squad were tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Despite that, the PCB has confirmed that the tour will go ahead and the ones tested negative will now assemble in Lahore on Wednesday in a bio-secure environment before undergoing another phase of testing on June 25.

The players who are tested positive are – Fakhar Zaman, Imran Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan, Wahab Riaz, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali and Shadab Khan. All these players have been advised to go into self-isolation for the certain period of time and will be tested twice again. In case, their results return negative, then they will be allowed to travel to the UK.

However, a lot of questions are being raised over the PCB’s testing kits now after Mohammad Hafeez was tested negative on Wednesday. Hafeez himself took to his official Twitter handle to reveal the news stating that he took the second opinion for personal satisfaction and also shared the test report.

“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,” his tweet read.

Pakistan players to be tested five times before the first Test

Even as Mohammad Hafeez has tested negative now, it remains to be seen if he will be allowed to board the chartered flight for Manchester. The players who will clear the tests on June 25 will only travel to England according to PCB’s Press release on Tuesday. Upon reaching Manchester, they will again be tested on behalf of the ECB as the team will stay in quarantine and train in Derbyshire for the two weeks.

The official schedule is yet to be released but the first Test of the three-match series is likely to be played in the first week of August. And the visitors will be tested as many as five times before the contest commences. However, with the latest developments and questions being raised over the testing kits, it remains to be seen if the PCB tests all the players again.