In a shocking news for England, seven members from the England squad has been found COVID-19 positive. The squad was about to face Pakistan in an ODI series of 3 matches starting from 8th July at Cardiff. However with as many as three players and four management members found positive, the entire squad of 18 players were forced to go under self isolation.
After the third ODI between Sri Lanka and England ended, all the English players went for a mandatory PCR tests. Consequently it was revealed that 3 players and 4 management members were found COVID positive. The news threatened to put the ODI series in danger but England declared a whole new team. Hence, it will be facing Pakistan in the upcoming series of 3 ODI games.
The original England team had some huge names likes regular captain Eoin Morgan, Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy and Joe Root. Now all these players won’t be a part of any cricketing activities for the next 15 days. However the England Cricket Board has decided that the ODI series will go ahead as per plan. Hence, they have quickly declared another squad of 18 players who will be under the leadership of Ben Stokes.
A second string team with 9 uncapped players for England
This 18 member squad contains as many as 9 uncapped players while the others aren’t too experienced either. Except Ben Stokes, only Dawid Malan and James Vince have reasonable success at the international level. The full 18 member team declared by England Cricket Board is as follows :
Ben Stokes, Jake Ball, Danny Briggs, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Lewis Gregory, Tom Helm, Will Jacks, Daniel Lawrence, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Matt Parkinson, David Payne, Phil Salt, John Simpson, James Vince.
With so many new faces, a second string England team will face Pakistan in Cardiff on 8 July. It will be followed by second match at Lords. The second ODI will be played on Saturday in front of a full seated stadium. Moreover, this will be the first time that allrounder Ben Stokes will captain an English team.
Meanwhile England’s opponents Pakistan is already under isolation since the day they arrived on 25 June.
