Pakistan insist their proposed tour of England this summer is 'very much on track', despite another seven players testing positive for coronavirus.
The two sides are scheduled to play a Test and T20 series on English soil later this summer, with Pakistan due to fly to England from Lahore on Sunday, though no dates for the games have yet been confirmed.
On Monday, three of the players named in Pakistan’s 29-man squad for the tour - Haider Ali, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan – tested positive, despite being asymptomatic.
On Tuesday, following further tests, another seven players were confirmed as having the virus: Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Hasnain, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Hafeez, Wahab Riaz and Imran Khan.
PCB chief executive Wasim Khan said: "As regards the players who have tested positive, we will continue to monitor and support them, including conducting antibody tests, and as soon as they test negative, they will be flown to join the squad in England.
"At the moment, they have been advised to go into self-isolation so that they not only recover quickly but also prevent their other family members from being infected.
"The tour to England is very much on track and the side will depart as per schedule on 28 June.
"Fortunately, all the first-choice red-ball squad, barring Mohammad Rizwan, are negative, which means they can start training and practising immediately after they have been tested and given the all-clear when they arrive in England."
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Following the first three tests, England director of cricket Ashley Giles had said he was confident the series would go ahead.
“It’s a concern and we’re most concerned about those players who tested positive and concerned about their welfare,” he said. “At the moment, I don’t think the series is in doubt.
“We’re far enough away from the start of the Test series to not worry about that too much for the moment. There’s some more Test results coming out later from the rest of the group, so we’ll see what that says, but we’re still hopeful that the Pakistan team will be arriving in the country fairly soon.”
England are due to finally begin the cricketing summer in a three-match series against the West Indies, starting on July 8.
The Windies arrived in the UK earlier this month and on Tuesday began a full-scale intra-squad warm-up match at Old Trafford, where they have been based.
