Rohit Sharma tests positive for COVID-19, likely to be fit before 5th Test against England
Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma has been found to be COVID-19 positive. To be played a few days after the rescheduled Test match against England (ENG vs IND Test). The BCCI gave this information on social media while issuing an official statement on Sunday.
BCCI wrote on its Twitter handle, “Team India captain Rohit Sharma has been found positive in the test for Covid-19 after the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted on Saturday. He is currently in isolation at the team hotel and Under the supervision of the BCCI medical team.
Rohit was part of the Indian team in the four-day warm-up match being played against Leicestershire. After this, India will play a rescheduled Test against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 1. Rohit had batted in the first innings on Thursday but he did not take the field during Saturday’s second innings. He scored 25 runs before being dismissed in the first innings of the warm-up match.
India is currently leading 2-1 in the series against England. Earlier in the year, Rohit had defeated Sri Lanka 2-0 while captaining the home series. If he recovers before the match at Edgbaston, it will be his first Test overseas as captain.
The 35-year-old Indian captain Rohit was expected to open the innings in the Test match with Shubman Gill and now his representation in this match will depend on the result of the RT-PCR test and his recovery.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin also joined the team late in England as he was found to be COVID-19 positive before the team left for the UK tour.
A biologically safe environment (biobubble) has not been created in England for these matches. India too recently did not create a biologically safe environment to host South Africa.
Last year, India took a 2-1 lead over England in the five-match series led by Virat Kohli. The fifth Test of the series could not be played due to the arrival of Covid-19 cases in the Indian camp. After which BCCI and ECB have rescheduled the remaining Tests this year.
After this test, India will play a three-match T20 series against England and an ODI series of equal number of matches.