India head coach Rahul Dravid said that Rohit Sharma, who tested positive recently for Covid-19, has not yet been officially ruled out of the rescheduled Test against England in Edgbaston on Friday.
Asked if the all-format captain is available or not, Dravid said the medical team is still monitoring the captain but did not confirm what the plan of action will be if he is not fit to play on time.
“He’s being monitored by our medical team. He has not yet been ruled out,” Dravid said late on Wednesday evening addressing the media.
“He needs to get the negative tests to be available. So we’ll keep monitoring that, as we still got those 36 hours or so to go. We’ll have a test later tonight as well and maybe one tomorrow morning as well. And then we’ll see obviously, he’ll have to come out of that and it’s really up to the medical team and the sports science team to decide on that.”
Asked if Jasprit Bumrah is the choice to lead, given that the original vice captain KL Rahul is also not available for this match, Dravid said that call has to be taken by Chetan Sharma-led selection committee.
Speaking about England’s approach Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, Dravid believed irrespective of how they played, India would be in the game and said his side are not much different.
“Any which way they play gives us opportunities, to be honest. We are leading the series 2-1. It’s up to us. We’ve to focus on our cricket, not worry too much about what England is doing and the way they are playing. We’ve to focus on what we’ve to do.
“To be honest with you, we’ve been a pretty positive side as well. We were second in the World Test Championship cycle last year, this year we find ourselves third in the table, just underneath the top two. We’ve been pretty successful in getting 20 wickets and winning Test matches. That for me is positive cricket as well,” he said.