Naseem Shah, who was originally a travelling reserve, has been included in the Pakistan squad for the first Test against Australia after Haris Rauf was ruled out after testing positive for COVID-19, Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Tuesday.
Haris will remain in isolation for five days and will reintegrate with the squad after a negative test at the end of his isolation period.
Following Rauf's positive test on Tuesday, the rest of the squad members and support personnel were retested. All these tests have come out negative.
On Sunday, Faheem Ashraf and Hasan Ali were ruled out of the first Test against Australia due to injuries. Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Wasim Jnr were then added to the squad as their replacements for the series opener, which is slated to be played from March 4-8 at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.
Pakistan's squad for the first Test: Babar Azam (captain) (Central Punjab), Mohammad Rizwan (vice-captain) (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Abdullah Shafique (Central Punjab), Azhar Ali (Central Punjab), Fawad Alam (Sindh), Iftikhar Ahmed (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Imam-ul-Haq (Balochistan), Mohammad Wasim Jnr (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Naseem Shah (Central Punjab), Nauman Ali (Northern), Sajid Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Saud Shakeel (Sindh), Shaheen Shah Afridi (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Shan Masood (Balochistan) and Zahid Mahmood (Sindh).
Test schedule: 4-8 Mar - 1st Test, Rawalpindi, 12-16 Mar - 2nd Test, Karachi, and 21-25 Mar - 3rd Test, Lahore.
( With inputs from ANI )
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