England squad hit by illness, could delay first Test against Pakistan

GEORGE DOBELL: Only five players were able to train on Wednesday, the day before the scheduled start, with the rest consigned to their hotel rooms. It is not believed to be food poisoning or Covid-related; a final decision will be made on Thursday

George Dobell | 30/11/2022 at 10:23

England's preparations for the first Test against Pakistan have been dealt a blow by a bout of sickness within the squad.

Only five players were able to train on Wednesday, the day before the scheduled start, with the rest consigned to their hotel rooms to stop the spread of the illness. In all, around 14 members of the tour party, including half the playing squad, are understood to have been affected by the illness.

Those hit by the bug, which the England camp say is not food poisoning, include Jack Leach, who has a history of Crohn's disease and take immune suppressant medication to deal with the issue.

So severe is the outbreak that talks are on-going over the possibility of delaying the start of the Test by 24 hours, with a final decision to be made on Thursday morning at 7.30am local time, which is 2.30am in the United Kingdom. An England team spokesperson did suggest that, had Wednesday been the start date, they would have been unable to put out a side.

With the second Test scheduled to start in Multan on Friday (December 9), though, there is little scope for such rearrangements. But an ECB statement confirmed that should the two national governing bodies involved decide on a postponement until Friday morning, it will remain a five-day Test, simply with a shorter turnaround ahead of the second match of the series.

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^{Joe Root was one of the first to experience symptoms but returned to training on Wednesday, giving England hope that it is just a 24-hour bug [Matthew Lewis/Getty Images]}

England are hoping the bug, which is understood to cause sickness and diarrhoea, only lasts around 24 hours per patient. Joe Root, who was one of the first to experience symptoms on Tuesday, had recovered sufficiently to train on Wednesday.

It may be relevant that all the first choice bowlers - James Anderson, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes and Leach - were unable to train on Wednesday, though. As a result, there may be concerns over their stamina going into back-to-back Tests on what are expected to be flat wickets.

The England players fit to train on Wednesday were Root, Harry Brook, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley. Jennings was not named in the Test XI but, with a real possibility of withdrawals, could yet come into the reckoning. England were already coming into the series with little preparation. They played a two-day warm-up match involving England Lions with some players, notably Stokes, taking no part.

England, who have taken a chef with them on this tour, insist the illness is not food poisoning or Covid related.

”I didn't feel great yesterday but I woke up better today," Root said. "So hopefully it's just a 24-hour virus. I don't think it's food poisoning or Covid or anything like that. In fact the chef is ill as well, so I don't think it is the food.

"We have been trying to bring a chef away with us for a couple of years now. This is the first opportunity we have had to do it. Look at all the other international sporting teams around, even Premier League and Championship teams have their own chef, so we think from a nutrition and performance side of things, we are trying to do everything we can to optimise ourselves and be in the right position to perform."