Northern will take on Southern Punjab instead of Balochistan in Wednesday’s evening game
Four Balochistan players participating in the ongoing National T20 Cup have tested positive for Covid-19, forcing the PCB to move their October 6 evening game at the Gaddafi Stadium against Northern to October 9. The match will be swapped with the Northern and Southern Punjab game.
The players who tested positive are placed in a 10-day quarantine while the remaining squad, who tested negative, will continue to participate in the tournament with a minor tweak in their schedule.
The first leg of the National T20 Cup was played in Rawalpindi before the six teams travelled by road to Lahore for the remaining games of the tournament; the final will also be played at the Gaddafi Stadium on October 13.
Despite the hiccup, Balochistan will continue to play Thursday’s game against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa according to the original schedule. But the squad led by Imam-ul Haq will have to rebuild their team with new players being picked from their Association Championship three-day tournament side. Players coming in as replacements can move from one bubble to another.
“All other participants and their families underwent testing on Tuesday and have returned negative,” the PCB wrote in a statement. “The PCB continues to monitor the situation and is retesting all participants and their families. It has also been decided the frequency of testing will be increased for the remainder of the tournament.”
The PCB has created a biosecure bubble for the National T20 Cup but the players selected for the upcoming T20 World Cup won’t play in the domestic tournament from October 8 and will be shifted to a new bubble being set up by the PCB as per the ICC’s regulations. The World Cup squad will depart on October 15 from Lahore.