As a welcome message ahead of the 5th test between England and India, all Indian players have returned negative results on the second RT-PCR Covid-19 tests conducted on Thursday 9th September. The players were isolated on the eve of the Manchester Test after India Assistant physio Yogesh Parmar tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday morning.
With the confirmation of the negative Covid-19 tests, the 5th and last test between England and India will take place as planned from Friday, September 10th. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) agreed to continue the series finals at Old Trafford.
India lead the 5-match streak 2-1 after taking a comeback win from behind in the 4th Test at the Oval last week.
Physio Yogesh was the fourth member of Indian support staff to test positive for Covid-19 after head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and field coach R Sridhar returned a positive test in London last week.
Parmar was in close contact with many players, particularly those like Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara, who complained of pain during the fourth test in the oval.
India players had to isolate on the eve of the test
India had to cancel its last training session on Thursday after the assistant physio tested positive for the virus. The fate of the 5th Test hung in the balance as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) were involved in talks on how to proceed.
It should be noted that India carried out the 4th test at the Oval in London, despite the fact that Shastri, Arun and Sridhar tested positive for the virus during the game. The three support staff along with physical therapist Nitin Patel were isolated when India entered the field without said support staff and won the oval test.
India Today reported earlier in the day that if the players gave negative results on the 2nd RT-PCR test, India would be ready to play the test. In the worst case, however, the Indian board was not there in favor of postponing the suspension of the 5th test. Instead, the BCCI advocated the cancellation of the 5th test in the scenario mentioned and the distribution of the World Test Championship points.
The ECB has also suggested that the team could play the friendly next year if the game doesn’t take place on Friday when India travels to England for a white ball series. The ECB didn’t announce its home game schedule until Thursday, and India is expected to play 3 ODIs and as many T20Is in July 2022.
Earlier in the day, England Vice-captain Jos Buttler had said there were no Covid-19 concerns at the hosts’ camp and they were preparing while hoping the 5th test would go ahead as planned.
“Right now we’re preparing to play tomorrow – keep our fingers crossed for the game to go on. We don’t know too much, to be honest. It would be naive to speculate too much about things I don’t know about” said Jos Buttler told the press on Thursday.
“Everything is fine in our camp – we trained well this morning.”
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