Speaking of scheduling nightmares, there's a real issue brewing in Pakistan, where several England players, including captain Ben Stokes, are feeling unwell on the eve of the team's first Test in the country in 17 years.

Only five England players — Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope and Joe Root – turned up for training at the Pindi Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

The rest of the squad members stayed at the team hotel.

Team spokesman Danny Reuben didn’t elaborate on the nature of the illnesses or give the exact number of affected England players, but said in a statement that the unwell players “have been advised to stay at the hotel to rest up.”

The situation is so bad that the BBC's chief cricket writer Stephan Shemilt reports that talks have been held over postponing the first Test between England and Pakistan by a day.

Joe Root told the BBC that it was not COVID related.

"We don't think it's COVID or food-related," he said.

"We're hoping it's just a 24-hour bug and everyone is fit and ready to go tomorrow."

England has already named its playing XI for the opening game of the three-match series with all-rounder Liam Livingstone set to make his test debut while Ben Duckett was named as opener with Zak Crawley.

England last toured Pakistan in 2005 and is scheduled to play three test matches at Rawalpindi, Multan and Karachi.

Given the importance of the tour, Root said, "It's not the worst thing if we have to wait to make sure the game isn't cancelled."

Reporting with AP