England and Pakistan will wait until the morning of Thursday’s historic first Test in Rawalpindi before deciding whether it will begin as scheduled after a “viral infection” broke out in the touring party.
Ben Stokes had boldly named his XI two days in advance of England’s first Test in Pakistan for 17 years, confirming a debut for Liam Livingstone and handing Ben Duckett a recall at opener six years on from the last of his four appearances.
But late changes or even a 24-hour delay to the start of the series opener remain possible, with “13 to 14 members” of England’s touring party suffering from sickness and diarrhoea during the buildup, including “six or seven” of the 16-man playing squad.
Stokes is among those affected, with only Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope and Joe Root present during Wednesday’s final training session at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Root had felt ill the previous evening but was already on the mend.
While the session was optional, the absentees went beyond those such as Livingstone, who simply chose to rest before his first Test. Jack Leach, whose situation is complicated by his management of Crohn’s disease, is understood to have been ill, while Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed, the two backup spinners, also missed nets in order to recover.
Talks between the representatives of the England and Wales Cricket Board and their Pakistan counterparts took place at the team hotel on Wednesday evening.
While Pakistan’s players have been told to prepare for the intended start – no cases have been reported in their camp – the two boards agreed to defer their final decision until 7.30amon Thursday (2.30am GMT) despite the scheduled 10am start.
“The two boards made the decision based on medical advice from the England doctors, which revolved around the players’ health and welfare, agreeing that the England cricket team are able to select an XI for the first of the three ICC World Test Championship matches, which will be played at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium,” the ECB said.
“The two boards also agreed, subject to the England players not recovering well enough to take the field on Thursday morning, then the Test will commence on Friday and will be a five-day match. In this scenario, the schedule of the second Test in Multan and the third Test in Karachi will remain unaffected and will be played as per the original schedule ie 9-13 and 17-21 December, respectively.”
Should the start of the match be put back by 24 hours but remain a five-day contest it would cause a costly logistical headache for the second Test in Multan that starts on 9 December, as well as leaving just two days’ recovery time for fast bowlers.
Food poisoning and Covid-19 were ruled out by the England team doctor, Anita Biswas, with a “viral infection” diagnosed. Had the outbreak come on the morning of the match, England would have been unable to field an XI without bringing members of the coaching staff or commentary teams out of retirement.
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“I felt unwell yesterday and woke up feeling much better today so hopefully it is a 24-hour thing,” said Root. “It is just one of those things that we have unfortunately picked up as a group.
“We’ve tried to do everything we can to get right for this game but sometimes life throws you these things at you. We have to see how we rock up as a squad tomorrow [Thursday].”
Were the match to go ahead as planned but Stokes be ruled out, Root will not return to the captaincy seven months after standing down from the role, pointing to Pope having led England against the Lions during last week’s one-off warmup match in Abu Dhabi.
Stokes has never named an official vice-captain, although Stuart Broad, missing this tour because of paternity leave, was earmarked to be his unofficial deputy during the home summer and nearly stepped in at Headingley when Stokes was ill two days before the start.
England hoped to reduce the chances of illness on this trip by bringing their own chef. Omar Meziane, who has previously worked with the England men’s football team, is overseeing food preparation at the team hotel in Islamabad and was among those taken ill.