Australia’s spin consultant for the Pakistan tour, Fawad Ahmed, has tested positive for COVID-19.
The former Australian leg-spinner will now have to face five days of isolation after a positive test and will have to provide two negative samples before he is allowed to rejoin the team.
Luckily for the Australian squad, Fawad had been isolating after arriving from Pakistan Super League commitments and had not interacted with any of the players or staff.
Fawad was hired by Cricket Australia as a substitute for Sridharan Sriram, the team’s usual spin consultant, who did not travel with the team to Pakistan and arrived at the Australian team hotel in Islamabad on Monday after finishing up a stint with Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League.
He was not at Australian training on Wednesday and had been expected to begin his work during the Test.
However, that won’t be the case now, with the 40-year-old set to isolate and watch the majority of the match from his hotel, leaving Australia without a specialist spin bowling coach during play.
“Team medical staff ensured Fawad isolated on his arrival at the hotel and he then returned the positive test after showing mild symptoms,” read a CA statement.
“He will remain isolated for at least five days – as per government regulations – and will only come out of that isolation after he returns two negative tests and is symptom-free.
All Australian players returned negative results on Wednesday.
However, a Covid outbreak could be brewing in the Pakistani camp. News broke on Tuesday of Haris Rauf testing positive to COVID and pictures shared by Fawad on Twitter may indicate that Shaheen could be next to catch the virus.
🇦🇺 Vs 🇵🇰 HONAY DO 👊🏽 💛💚
PSL7 Done Dusted 🏆 🙌🏽
Islamabad Bound 🛩
we spent some amazing time together both on and off the field @iShaheenAfridi @lahoreqalandars
but now we gonna part ways,
let’s bring on the historic Test Series @TheRealPCB @CricketAus #PakvsAus #Testseries22 pic.twitter.com/fLtZAoUtlu— Fawad Ahmed (@FawadAhmed52) February 28, 2022
