Ashley Giles, England’s men’s director of cricket has insisted that there was no breach of protocols from England players and staff members after at least three players and four staff members of the England cricket team tested positive for Covid-19, according to the England & Wales Cricket Board’s announcement.
With the current squad required to undergo quarantine as part of the Covid-19 protocols, the ECB had to announce a change in the squad for the upcoming ODI series against Pakistan.
Ashley Giles Confident The Players Haven’t Breached Protocols
Questions are being raised over what could have led to the outbreak of the virus at the camp just before the Pakistan series, but Ashley Giles is confident that the cricketers have adhered to the protocols.
“I’m very confident the players haven’t breached any of those protocols. We can’t say where it originated,” Giles was quoted as saying by BT Sport.
“The squad have been living under very tight restrictions. We haven’t gambled. I don’t believe we’ve gambled at all. We are fully aware of the risks and we are aware of the knife-edge that we are working on all the time,” he added.
England was forced to pick an entirely new squad of players and support staff for the ODI series against Pakistan after seven members of the party originally selected (four from the management unit and three players) tested positive for the virus.
Ben Stokes will return to the squad to captain the side and Chris Silverwood, who had been due to take some time away during the white-ball series, is back as head coach. In total, there are nine uncapped players in the squad.
Ashley Giles: The Risk Of England Players Catching Infection In The Group Was Higher Due To Emergence Of The Delta Strain
Ashley Giles further said that the new Delta variant could possibly be the reason for the outbreak at the England camp despite the high level of safety measures implemented.
“This year we tried to operate in what we called ‘safe environments’, but from the nature of what we are doing this year – playing all around the country, traveling a lot, hotels that aren’t sole use – and given this variant, the risk of us catching an infection in the group was obviously going to go up,” Giles added.
England will play Pakistan in three ODIs and as many T20Is. The ODI series will begin on Thursday and the third and final match will be played on July 13.
England had earlier named a 16 member squad comprising of skipper Eoin Morgan and the likes of seasoned campaigners Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, and Joe Root.
Earlier Squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Sam Billings, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, David Willey, Tom Curran, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Liam Livingstone, Chris Woakes, Liam Dawson, George Garton, and Tom Banton.
After the Covid-19 outbreak, England named a new 18 member squad captained by Ben Stokes and consisting of 9 uncapped players. Still, there is no recall for Alex Hales.
England ODI Squad: Ben Stokes (c), Jake Ball, Danny Briggs, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Lewis Gregory, Tom Helm, Will Jacks, Dan Lawrence, Saqib Mahmood, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Matt Parkinson, David Payne, Phil Salt, John Simpson, James Vince.