'Don’t know if the match will happen' - Sourav Ganguly after another Covid-19 positive case in India camp

Just a day before the fifth Test between England and India at Manchester, there is uncertainty around the fact whether the match will be played or not. The Indian team is currently in their hotel rooms after another member of their contingent tested positive for COVID-19. 

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly also expressed the confused state of the matter, saying that he doesn’t know if the final Test will go ahead as planned or not. Having said that, the match is supposed to start on September 10 at Old Trafford in Manchester. 

“We don’t know if the match will happen at the moment. Hopefully, we can get some game,” said Ganguly at the book launch of ‘Mission Domination’ in Kolkata and was quoted by News18. The reports which have emerged from Manchester seem to suggest that the Indian team has been said to stay in the rooms until the results of the second test conducted on them are revealed. 

“The results of the RT-PCR tests (of players) are expected later in the day depending on which the fate of the game will be decided,” the BCCI source added. Ahead of the final day’s play of the fourth Test, head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar were isolated after Shastri’s positive test reports. 

No training for India on the eve of the match, as players were told to be inside their hotel rooms

Meanwhile, the trio stayed back in London as the whole squad headed to Manchester. Once the whole squad was put through a test again in Manchester, it has been reported that one of the members of the backroom staff was tested positive with COVID. This has forced all the players to take another test. Fortunately, no players have been suspected as a close contact of that backroom staff and no one had tested positive with COVID in the first Test.

The second Test was conducted and the results are expected to come late at night on Thursday. Once the results are out, only then a decision will be made whether England and India will play the fifth Test or not.