Pakistani cricket team in England in 2020
The Pakistan cricket team are currently touring England in August and September 2020 to play three Tests and three Twenty20 International matches. The Test series will form part of the inaugural 2019–21 ICC World Test Championship. The first Test and the T20I matches are scheduled to be played at Old Trafford. The second and third Test matches are scheduled to take place at the Rose Bowl, with all the fixtures being played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background
Ahead of the tour to England, Pakistan were scheduled to play three One Day International matches in the Netherlands, and two T20I matches in Ireland. However, in April 2020, the matches in the Netherlands were postponed after the Dutch government announced that it had banned all events in the country, both sports and cultural, until 1 September 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In regards to the pandemic, the England and Wales Cricket Board were also looking at hosting the Test matches in bio-secure environments, with Old Trafford in Manchester and the Rose Bowl in Southampton being possible venues, due to their hotel facilities. In May 2020, Wasim Khan, the chief executive of the Pakistan Cricket Board was in talks with the ECB about the possibility of touring England, with the PCB saying that they were "very optimistic" with regards to the planning. The PCB plan to send a squad of twenty-five players, with the Test and T20I teams travelling together, to give them the best options in case of any injuries. In the same month, Babar Azam was named as the new captain of Pakistan's One Day International team. Babar said that he had complete faith and trust in the PCB's decision on touring, and said if it is safe to go he would definitely travel for the tour.In late May 2020, a revised schedule was issued, with the first Test match taking place at Old Trafford from 5 August 2020. On 9 June 2020, the PCB appointed Younis Khan and Mushtaq Ahmed as their batting and spin-bowling coaches respectively for the tour. The PCB also decided not to hold a training camp for the national team in Lahore, with the board working with the ECB to bring their travel date forward by one week. On 11 June 2020, the PCB confirmed that Mohammad Amir and Haris Sohail were not available to tour England due to personal reasons. On 12 June 2020, the PCB named a 29-man squad for the tour, with Azhar Ali captaining the Test side and Babar Azam captaining the T20I side. After the squad was named, Wahab Riaz said that he would be willing to play Test cricket again, after taking a break from red-ball cricket in September 2019.
The PCB announced that the touring party would go through three rounds of COVID-19 testing prior to leaving Pakistan, and would be tested every five days once in England. On 22 June 2020, the PCB confirmed that Haider Ali, Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf had all tested positive for the virus. None of the three players had shown any previous symptoms, and were all advised to go into a period of self-isolation. England's director of cricket, Ashley Giles, said he was "concerned" by the news, but said that the tour was not in doubt. However, the following day, seven more players had tested positive for the virus. Despite the increase in positive tests, Wasim Khan said that the tour was still on, with the team planning to depart for England as scheduled. Anyone who has tested positive will be allowed to rejoin the squad after they finish their quarantine period and return two negative tests. Mohammad Hafeez, one of the seven cricketers to test positive on 23 June 2020, tested negative the following day, after taking a private test to get a second opinion. Six of the ten players who initially tested positive returned a negative, when they were tested again. On 27 June 2020, the PCB confirmed that twenty players and eleven members of their support staff would be travelling to England. The flight departed from Allama Iqbal International Airport the following morning, and arrived in Manchester later the same day. On 30 June 2020, the six cricketers that tested negative after initially testing positive, provided a second negative test, and travelled to England as soon as possible. They were joined by three more players who provided two negative tests in four days. In July 2020, Wasim Khan admitted that the PCB came under pressure on whether to tour England or not after so many players returned a positive test.
In June 2020, the International Cricket Council made several interim changes to the Playing Conditions due to the pandemic. A substitute could be used for any player showing symptoms of COVID-19, but only in a Test match. Players were banned from using saliva to shine the ball, with five penalty runs being awarded to the opposition for repeated transgressions. The requirement to use neutral match officials was temporarily lifted, along with an increase to the number of DRS reviews a team can use, due to having less experienced umpires in a match.
Squads
On 12 June 2020, the PCB named a touring squad of 29 players for both the Test and T20I matches. The PCB also named Bilal Asif, Imran Butt, Musa Khan and Mohammad Nawaz as reserve players for the tour. On 27 July 2020, the PCB shortlisted a 20-man squad for the Test series.On 27 June 2020, due to the high number of positive tests for COVID-19, Rohail Nazir was also added to Pakistan's touring party. Zafar Gohar, who is based in England, joined the team when they arrived in the country, but only took part in pre-match preparations. Kashif Bhatti returned a positive COVID-19 test while in England, but was able to rejoin the squad on 16 July 2020 after two negative tests and a period of self-isolation. On 20 July 2020, Mohammad Amir was added to Pakistan's squad for the T20I matches, following the early birth of his second child. Amir had initially ruled himself out of travelling to England. Amir replaced Haris Rauf, after Rauf provided five positive tests out of six for COVID-19 in the last month. On 30 July 2020, the PCB confirmed that Rauf had returned two consecutive negative tests, and was therefore eligible to fly to England to join the Pakistan squad.
On 29 July 2020, England named their squad for the first Test, which was unchanged from the side that had beaten the West Indies the previous day. James Bracey, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence and Jack Leach were also named as reserve players for the opening fixture.
Practice matches
Pakistan were due to play two tour matches, a first-class match against a Select XI side, and a twenty-over match against Leicestershire. However, the tour matches were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the Pakistan squad played intra-squad matches to serve as preparation. A two-day practice match took place in Worcester, ahead of two four-day matches in Derby. On the morning of the second four-day match, the PCB announced that the match would have first-class status.----
----