Reports: Washington Sundar tests positive for COVID-19, doubtful for South Africa ODIs

In what can be called a major development, Indian off-spinner Washington Sundar has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now a doubtful starter for the upcoming three-match ODI series against South Africa. The series gets underway on January 19 and the ODI squad was to leave for Cape Town on Wednesday (January 12). However, Sundar is now doubtful to take the flight as he has contracted the widely-spreading virus.

Sundar’s ouster from the series would be a major blow for the visitors as the likes of Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja aren’t part of the squad. In their absence, Sundar was expected to be the team’s first-choice all-rounder. However, dark clouds are now looming over his participation and India would not want to miss out on his services.

Washington Sundar has been out of action since a while

“I have nothing to comment, I will come back to you soon,” the young all-rounder told Cricbuzz on Tuesday (January 11) when asked about him testing positive for Covid-19.

It must be noted that Sundar has been out of action since a while due to injury issues. He even missed the second leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 and subsequent T20 World Cup due to fitness issues. He recovered recently and represented Tamil Nadu in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He did fairly well in the tournament and the same led his recall into the ODI squad.

However, it seems like his return to national colours would be delayed for some more time. “He tested positive some days back and it has been decided that he will not travel with the squad,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

Meanwhile, KL Rahul will lead India in ODIs with new white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma being unavailable due to a hamstring injury. Venkatesh Iyer is all but likely to fill the all-rounder’s spot if Sundar misses out.

India’s 18-member squad for ODI series vs South Africa: KL Rahul (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj