ENG vs IND: Ravi Shastri to miss Manchester Test owing to 14-day quarantine

Team India’s head coach Ravi Shastri will miss being a part of the Indian dressing room for the fifth Test match against England as he will be undergoing his mandatory isolation of 14 days. He can be part of the Indian dressing room only after returning from two negative tests.

Ahead of the start of the play on Day Four, the BCCI announced that the medical team had isolated Shastri and the other staff who was deemed to be his close contacts. Bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R. Shridhar and physiotherapist Nitin Patel were isolated along with Shastri as a precautionary measure after Shastri’s lateral flow test was positive on Saturday evening.

“Unfortunately, Shastri will remain in isolation for 14 days and will have to return two negative tests before he can come out of isolation. He will not be a part of the Indian dressing room till then,” a source was quoted as saying by Yahoo Sports.

Boys did well to not get distracted: Vikram Rathour

The other Team India members then underwent two lateral flow tests on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Post returning with negative Covid reports, the team was allowed to proceed with the play on Day four. India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour stated that the whole thing was a bit of distraction but eventually the team decided to shift their focus on cricket. He also credited the team for handling the situation in the right way.

“Of course, we are missing Ravi bhai massively. Ravi bhai, Bharat Arun, and R Sridhar have been an extremely important part of this setup, they have done well in the past five-six years and they have played a major role in the team doing well. This is what it is, they are not here. In the morning, it was a bit of a distraction, we had a word and we decided we need to focus on the cricket. We are here for this series, and I think the boys did well to not get distracted. There was a potential we could have been distracted, the credit needs to go to the boys for the way they handled themselves,” said Rathour during a virtual press conference on Sunday.

About the fourth Test match, India was bundled up at 466 on Day four. England’s openers Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed provided a flying start to the team as they ended at 77/0 at stumps on Day 4  at The Oval. Heading into the final day, all the three results are possible and the cricket on-lookers yet again will be at the edge of their seats to witness the contest.