Reports: India fretting over possibility of more Covid-19 cases in camp ahead of warm-up fixture

Prior to their warm-up match on June 24, India may be plagued by a wave of COVID-19 cases. The team is in Leicester to play a warm-up game ahead of the fifth Test after arriving in England on June 16 (Thursday).

Recently, Ravichandran Ashwin had to miss his flight to the UK after testing positive for Covid-19. While he was supposed to fly with the rest of the team, he will now to wait a week longer. As a result, he will be missing out on the warm-up match against Leicestershire. The rescheduled fifth Test of the series is set to begin on July 1 in Birmingham.

As per a report by The Times of India, former skipper Virat Kohli had tested positive for the virus on his arrival in London. Kohli, who was rested for the South Africa home T20I series, had been on a vacation with his wife Anushka Sharma and a source had told TOI about Kohli testing positive for the virus after returning from the Maldives.

“Yes, Virat too was hit by Covid after returning from holidaying in the Maldives, but he’s recovered now,” the source told TOI.

The Test match was postponed last year due to a Covid-19 outbreak in the Indian camp. There are still worries that other squad members may be infected even though the former captain has fully recovered and returned to practice.

The BCCI medical department has advised the coaching unit not to overwork the players. An insider went on to say that head coach Rahul Dravid could have to settle for a conservative strategy in the warm-up game against Leicestershire.

“This now means that the tour game against Leicestershire from June 24 won’t be as intense as coach Rahul Dravid wanted it to be, since the medical advice is to not overload the players after they’ve suffered Covid-19. There could be more Covid cases in the team,” the source added.

Beginning on July 1, the team captained by Rohit Sharma is slated to play the rescheduled fifth Test before a white-ball series that consists of three ODIs and three T20Is.