India captain Rohit Sharma has tested positive for Covid-19 in England, the Board of Control for Cricket in India confirmed in a statement on Sunday.
India are currently playing a warm-up game in Leicester ahead of a solitary Test match against England starting on July 1.
The lone Test is the rescheduled fifth match from India’s tour to England last year, which did not take place since series had to be postponed due to Covid-19 cases in the Indian camp.
“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,” read the statement.
Sharma had batted on the first day of the ongoing warm-up game against Leicestershire but didn’t take the field on the second day. He did not bat in the second Indian innings, reported PTI.
The 35-year-old, who is now India’s all-format captain, was expected to open the batting with Shubman Gill in the absence of KL Rahul. Though the BCCI is officially yet to confirm Rahul’s absence, the injured opener who had been named vice captain in the original squad is not part of the scheme of things in England. It remains to be seen who will lead the side should Rohit not be available. The other players in the squad who have been part of the leadership group, apart from former captain Virat Kohli, in recent times are Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant.
India currently lead the series 2-1 after four matches were played last year and are seeking their first Test series triumph on England soil since 2007, should they avoid defeat in the rescheduled match.
In the ongoing Test series between England and New Zealand, the Kiwis have had to deal with a few Covid-19 cases. The period of isolation has been mentioned as five days there, and if the same protocol is followed for Rohit, he will be cutting it close to be available for the match that starts on Friday at Edgbaston.
New Zealand struggled with a Covid-19 outbreak ahead of the ongoing third Test against England after Devon Conway became the latest member of the touring party to test positive. All-rounder Michael Bracewell and two members of the backroom staff, Vijay Vallabh and Chris Donaldson, had also tested positive for coronavirus. But both of them are playing the match in Headingley after completing their isolation from Wednesday to Sunday last week. Captain Kane Williamson missed the match in Nottingham after testing positive for Covid.
India’s Test squad as announced by BCCI on 22 May: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna
(With AFP inputs)