India Tour of England – Wriddhiman Saha tests Negative: At last some good news is coming in from Covid-19 hit Indian cricket team in England. InsideSport has learnt that all members of the Indian cricket team other than two positive cases of Rishabh Pant and a member of the support staff – have tested negative. According to the BCCI sources – all Indian team players including all 3 quarantined members of the team i.e wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, back-up opener Abhimanyu Easwaran & bowling coach Bharat Arun have all tested negative in the first round of RT-PCR Tests.
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It is worth noting that as close contacts of Covid-19 positive member of Indian support staff team – Saha, Easwaran & Arun are currently in hard quarantine in London hotel.
“All have tested negative and have cleared the RT-PCR Test. But as per the local protocols Saha, Easwaran & Arun will not travel to Durham and have been asked to stay in team hotel in London’, confirms the BCCI source.
When asked, how is Rishabh Pant doing?
InsideSport was informed by the official that – Pant is doing well and currently in complete isolation.
“Pant is doing good but will stay isolated for next 7 days. Since testing positive, twice he has been tested and good news is he tested negative in both”
InsideSport has further learnt that there is a good chance that Pant may play second tour match scheduled for 28th July as his quarantine ends on 18th July. Saha will have to stay in quarantine till 24th July.
Meanwhile each and every member of the Indian team for next 7 days will have to undergo lateral flow tests as per the BCCI release on Thursday. The BCCI release declared that “to mitigate any further risks”, the Indian contingent will be administered “lateral flow tests on a daily basis”.
India Tour of England: No Pant, No Saha – who will keep wickets for India in first tour game?
Though Indian team management in England and BCCI is completely confident that Pant will be fit well before the 1st test match vs England scheduled for 4th August – the Indian team has a task at hand in regard to who will keep wickets for the team in the tour matches?
Both Pant & Saha are currently unavailable and KL Rahul is the only option available. Team management is likely to draft Rahul also as a opening partner for Rohit Sharma.
The Indians will play a three-day warm-up match against a County Select XI in Durham from July 20. This will be followed by an intra-squad game in the following week as final preparation before the Test series gets underway at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, on August 4.
The 1st practice game against Select County XI will be played “strictly behind closed doors”, and will be streamed on Durham Cricket’s YouTube channel.
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