England's Pakistani origin star yet to be granted Indian visa, ECB forced to cancel flight ahead of India tour

Saqib Mahmood, England Cricket Team's Pakistani origin star has not received his Indian visa yet which is causing issues for the team ahead of their tour of India

England's Bilateral tour of India is set to commence with the five-match T20 International series which is slated to start from the 22nd of January onwards. The Three Lions have also unveiled their squad for this upcoming tour of India and now they are preparing to travel to India but before this, one player of England's team is facing certain issues. 

It has been learned that he has not received his Indian visa yet, due to which the picture regarding him travelling with the English team to India is not clear yet. We are talking about Saqib Mahmoud, a fantastic fast bowler of the Three Lions. 

England have set up their training camp in Abu Dhabi

Whenever the 2019 World Cup winners travel to India for a bilateral series assignment, they first set up a training camp in Abu Dhabi. This time around too, the situation is the same. A news report of ESPNCricinfo has revealed that Saqib may not be a part of the Abu Dhabi training camp till his visa issues get sorted out. 

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are hopeful that the 27-year-old speedster receives his visa before the commencement of the T20 International series on the 22nd of January.

Due to his Pakistani origin, the visa approval is getting delayed

It's believes that the main reason behind the delay in the visa approval of 27-year-old Saqib Mahmood is his Pakistani origin. In the past too, English players who have a Pakistani origin have encountered such issues. Last year, when the Three Lions came to India for the Test-Series, spinner Shoaib Bashir also faced issues related to his Indian visa. 

Due to this, he missed the opening Test-Match in Hyderabad but after sorting out the problems, he played in the remaining matches of the series. 

The case of Rehan Ahmed & Adil Rashid is clear

Although the ECB has not commented on this entire matter, the board still hopes that Saqib will land on Indian soil before the start of the first T20I between the Suryakumar Yadav-led team and England. The squad announced by the ECB consists of two more players who have Pakistani origin and they are, Rehan Ahmed & Adil Rashid. 

Adil Rashid has played a lot of matches on Indian soil so his visa was never an issue while Rehan also played the Test-Series in India last year so his case is pretty clear too.

This is how Saqib's International career has been so far

27-year-old Saqib Mahmood is not only included in the T20I series team, he has also been given a chance in the ODI team. He will also go to Pakistan and play the Champions Trophy matches for England . If we talk about his career so far, Saqib has played 18 T20 International matches for England and has dismissed 18 batters in this format so far. At the same time, he also has 14 scalps next to his name by featuring in nine One-Day International contests.

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