Ten players dropped from Pakistan's England tour over Covid-19

Pakistan's cricket team will leave for its tour of England on Sunday without 10 players after they tested positive for coronavirus for a second time, the country's cricket board said Saturday.

The board chief executive Wasim Khan said the players can rejoin the squad of 18 players if they later test negative.

After first testing positive this week, follow-up tests were given to Shadab Khan, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Wahab Riaz, Imran Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain and Kashif Bhatti. Of those missing the start, only wicketkeeper Rizwan would be classed a first-choice Test player.

Pakistan's tour of England is set to include three Tests and three Twenty20 internationals.

The squad will have a 14-day isolation period on arrival before continuing their preparations ahead of the first Test with two internal four-day warm-up matches.

Pakistan's itinerary notified 'due course'

It is expected that the first Test will take place in Manchester in August, but the England and Wales Cricket Board said the behind-closed-doors match schedule would be announced in "due course".

The Pakistan Cricket Board expressed concern on Friday over the positive results from 10 of the 29 cricketers chosen for the tour. The only good news was that none have showed symptoms, and all have time to recover.

The board met via video conference and approved a 2020-21 budget of around $46 million, including for the Pakistan Super League, its premier T20 tournament.

The PCB had to suspend the PSL in March but hopes to stage the playoffs this year. Peshawar was added as a fifth venue for the 2021 tournament starting in February.

Pakistan is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases, with nearly 200,000 declared cases and more than 4,000 deaths, while cases are falling in Britain.