Illness leaves England struggling to make up numbers
England’s preparations for their first test in Pakistan for 17 years were thrown into turmoil on the eve of the match by a vomiting bug afflicting the touring party.
More than half of the XI named by Ben Stokes on Wednesday, including the captain himself, were unable to net yesterday after falling ill. Around 14 members of the touring group, players and backroom staff, were unwell and confined to the hotel. If the match had been due to start yesterday, England would have been unable to field a team.
It led to talks between officials from the two boards and the match referee, Andy Pycroft, over the possibility of delaying the match by 24 hours. The Pakistan Cricket Board was not keen, having sold 15,000 tickets for day one and arranged for heavy security to close the roads around the ground.
It was agreed that a final decision would be made today at the team hotel in Islamabad when the England medical staff assessed the squad and determined who was able to play. Both boards agreed to delay the game if not enough players were well enough to take the field.
Even if the game did go ahead, England would be carrying players struggling to recover their strength after a debilitating 24 hours.
“I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. It is horrible. Running on and off the field all the time,” said Joe Root, one of five players to train yesterday and who has been taken ill while batting in the past in Australia and South Africa.
England brought their own chef on tour to minimise the risk of illness after several players suffered from sickness during the Twenty20 series in
September.
The tourists were worried about food preparation at the hotels and grounds but had also wanted to bring a chef on tour for some time. However, their decision has upset some in Pakistan.
At the pre-match press conference, Root stood in for Stokes and was asked by a local journalist if the team should have relied on “Pakistan cooks” instead. To make matters worse the chef, Omar Meziane, who has worked with the England football team, was one of those suffering from illness. England believe they have succumbed to an airborne virus, rather than food poisoning.
A major concern was the health of
Jack Leach, who takes immunosuppressant drugs to control his Crohn’s disease. He was one of the players suffering and feared for his life when he was admitted to hospital on a tour to New Zealand in 2019 with gastroenteritis that developed into sepsis.