October 10, 2021
What better way to beat the quarantine boredom than by playing cricket, that too, inside the hotel and with kids?
A video shared by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on its official Twitter account shows pacer Shahnawaz Dahani and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam playing cricket with a few children in the hotel’s narrow corridor.
“Quarantine = Cricket time!! Pakistan @T20WorldCup squad spending their isolation time while playing cricket with kids,” read the PCB’s post.
In the video, skipper Babar Azam can be seen sitting on the floor of the corridor, throwing a ball towards a kid. In other video clips, fast bowler Shahnawaz Dahani can be seen acting as an umpire as one kid bowls to another.
Dahani can be seen frequently calling wides down the leg side before he finally gives in to an impassioned appeal and gives the batsman out.
An official statement issued by the PCB earlier announced that the national squad will hold "a seven-day training and conditioning camp" under bio-secure protocols at the National High-Performance Centre and LCCA ground, Lahore, from today (Sunday).
The squad members and their families joined the bio-secure bubble on Friday and got themselves tested upon arrival.
The PCB had said that “after returning negative tests, the players will be allowed to commence their preparations from Sunday with the gym sessions at NHPC.”