Indian captain Rohit Sharma has tested positive for COVID19 in a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) ahead of the ‘fifth’ Test against England.
Rohit Sharma Tested COVID19 Positive
Rohit Sharma’s positive result came after the third day’s play of the 3-day warm-up match against Leicestershire.
The postponed 5th test match of the India tour of England in 2021 is scheduled to play on July 1 in Edgbaston, Birmingham – the same day where India will play their 1st T20 warm-up match against Derbyshire in County Ground, Derby.
As per the India tour of England 2022 schedule, following the test match, team India will play 3 T20I matches and as many as ODI matches till July 17. In the meantime, another Indian team under IPL 2022 winning captain Hardik Pandya will play 2 T20I matches against Ireland.
A BCCI statement said: “Team India captain Mr. Rohit Sharma has tested positive for COVID-19 following a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted on Saturday. He is currently in isolation at the team hotel and is under the care of the BCCI Medical Team. An RT-PCR test will be conducted on Sunday to ascertain his CT value.”
Currently, Rohit is in isolation at the team hotel and he will remain in isolation for a period of 6 days while the test match will begin on July 1. In the absence of Rohit Sharma, Indian senior bowler Jasprit Bumrah is expected to lead the Indian test against England.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had also joined the squad in England late since he had also tested positive for COVID-19 before the team left for the UK tour.
The one-off Test is the conclusion of the series from last year which was suspended after a Covid-19 outbreak in the India team.
The matches are not played under a bio-bubble in the UK now. Notably, BCCI too hosted South Africa recently without a bio-bubble where the 5-match T20I series ended in a tie after the 5th and decider match was abandoned.
