Cricket / Ravi Shastri tests positive for COVID-19 during England-India Test

Cricket Desk: Four members of India’s support staff will be in isolation after the head coach Ravi Shastri’s lateral flow test for COVID-19 returned a positive result. Along with Shastri, Mr B. Arun, Bowling Coach, Mr R. Sridhar, Fielding Coach and Mr Nitin Patel, Physiotherapist have been isolated and will not be traveling with the team on Day 4 of the ongoing Oval Test between India and England.

BCCI confirmed in a statement that all the Indian players underwent the lateral flow test on Saturday evening and then on Sunday morning. After all of them returned negative reports for COVID, they were allowed to travel to the stadium to take part in the day 4 action at The Oval.

The four support staff members have now undergone RT-PCR tests and will remain in isolation in their respective hotel rooms. “They have undergone RT-PCR testing and shall remain in the team hotel and not travel with Team India until confirmation from the medical team,” the BCCI statement read.

Crucial Day 4 for India

The sudden developments in the Indian camp must have stunned the players and their families along with the support staff as well. The series was going well until now and Day 4 was set for a thriller with India batting well. While the action is set to go on as planned but still it remains to be seen how mentally the Indian batsmen are affected after the recent happenings.

The game is set up nicely with the visitors leading by 171 runs with seven wickets in hand in the second innings. Virat Kohli is batting on 22 along with Ravindra Jadeja and the duo will be keen on extending the lead to a match-winning one.

On the third day, it was the duo of Cheteshwar Pujara (61) and Rohit Sharma (127) who helped India in building the lead in the best batting conditions on offer. The first hour of the fourth morning will be extremely crucial yet again for both the teams to decide probably the fate of the series.