England Test team landed in Pakistan after a gap of 17 years for a historic Test series on Sunday. There is a lot of intrigue for the upcoming series given the huge gap in its reoccurrence.
The first match is scheduled to start on December 1st in Rawalpindi, however, before the start, the England team has been dealt a major blow. Several of their players have been stuck by an unknown virus and are currently unwell ahead of the first day of the match.
The Pakistan Cricket Board’s official Twitter handle was the bearer of the bad news as it wrote, “The PCB and ECB are in discussion regarding the commencement of the 1st #PAKvsENG Test as some England players are down with viral infection.”
England captain Ben Stokes and James Anderson are understood to be the two of those who are affected. Joe Root also had symptoms but has recovered and is taking part in practice.
England pacer Stuart Broad who is not a part of the Test squad soon tweeted a picture of former batting duo Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain with the caption, “An option?”
Hussain who himself enjoys a bit of banter on Twitter could not hold himself from tweeting in response to Broad’s tweets and making a great self-deprecating joke. He wrote, “Siri show me the opposite of Bazball!!!”
Hussain smartly referred to England’s changed approach under new coach Brandon McCallum and used it to speak of their playing style which was quite different.
It is not food related- Joe Root
The England team’s health woes are not food related as was reported by Root. “It is unfortunate we are in this situation, but we don’t think it is food-related,” Root said. “I don’t think there is any correlation between the two and in fact the chef is ill as well, so I don’t think it is the food,” Root had said ahead of the match.
It would be interesting to see if the PCB and ECB postpone the match by 24 hours given the state of players’ health.
