LAHORE: The Pakistan Senior and Shaheen teams, comprising 34 players and 20 supporting staff have left for New Zealand via Dubai on Monday.

Chief selector-cum-Head coach Misbah-ul-Haq picked up 35 players for the tour but on Sunday, dashing opener Fakhar Zaman was sidelined due to high fever and could not travel with the team.

No replacement for Fakhar has been named. Though Fakhar had cleared the Covid-19 test earlier, the PCB decided not to to drop him from the tour party for now.

Pakistan will play two Tests and three T20s while Shaheens will also play two four-day and three T20 matches against New Zealand ‘A’. Pakistan’s will T20 series will commence from from Dec 18 and the-Test series will start from Dec 26.

Babar Azam is leading Pakistan in all three formats, including the Tests for the first time after having replaced Azhar Ali.

The team will land in Auckland and from there it will go to Christchurch to spend 14 days in quarantine.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2020