Pakistan suffered a double blow ahead of their semi-final against Australia as two man-of-the-match award winners of Pakistan in the ongoing World Cup T20 caught the flu.

Shoaib Malik and Muhammad Rizwan both caught the flu and did not take part in the team’s practice session on Wednesday.

The media manager of the Pakistan cricket team, Ibrahim Badees was quoted as saying that COVID-19 tests of both players came back negative, but the doctor has advised them to rest.

The players will undergo a medical check up tomorrow before the match and if they did not recover in time Sarfaraz Ahmed and Haider Ali might replace Malik and Rizwan. Former skipper Sarfaraz was seen giving it his all during the practice session.

Pakistan have played five games with the same squad in the World T20 and Pakistan captain Babar Azam was in no mood to make changes in the team.

However, the change at the time of the key knock-out stage match would put Pakistan into unchartered waters.

Pakistan will take on Australia in the T20 World Cup semi-final tomorrow (Thursday) in Dubai.

Pakistan remained undefeated in the Super 12 stage of the tournament, where they beat India, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Namibia, and Scotland.