Saturday 20 / April / 2024
New Delhi [India], September 9 (ANI): The fate of the fifth Test between India and England in Manchester seems to be under a cloud at the moment and the result of the COVID-19 test of the Indian team - conducted by England and Wales Cricket Board's testing agency - will decide the future course of action.
Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments said the report will come around 8pm (UK time) and some people might be forced to go for isolation as close contact. With physio Yogesh Parmar testing positive for COVID-19, a call on the next step can only be taken after the results come in.
"A clear picture will be got around a little past midnight India time. The tests have been done by ECB's testing agency and the reports will come in around 8pm UK time. With physio Nitin Patel in isolation, it was Parmar who was working with the team over the last few days and since he has tested positive, it will be the test reports which will decide the way forward," the source said.
Ahead of the fifth and final Test against England, Parmar tested positive for COVID-19 in Manchester. This has led to Team India's training session for Thursday afternoon being cancelled.
However, there are no COVID-19 related worries in the England camp and Jos Buttler said everything is fine and the hosts are looking forward to the game. "We don't know too much about it at the moment. It would be naive to speculate on what's going on. At the moment we're fully expecting the game to go ahead and we're preparing that way so fingers crossed the game will go ahead. Things are fine in our camp and we are looking forward to the game," said Buttler in a virtual press conference.
This comes after India head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar returned positive results to their RT-PCR tests during the fourth Test. They are currently undergoing isolation and can come out only after returning two negative results.
On Sunday, just half an hour before the start of play on Day 4 of the fourth Test, the BCCI said its medical team had isolated Shastri, Bharat Arun, Sridhar, and physio Nitin Patel as a precautionary measure after Shastri's lateral flow test returned positive on Saturday evening.
The remaining members of the Team India contingent had undergone two Lateral Flow Tests -- one on Saturday night and another on Sunday morning. The members upon returning negative COVID reports were allowed to proceed for Day 4 of the fourth Test at The Oval against England.
