Sri Lanka vs India: India includes five net bowlers into main squad as eight players become ineligible for remaining series

India’s second T20I against Sri Lanka, which was pushed back by a day following Krunal Pandya’s positive Covid-19 test result, is understood to go ahead as per the plan. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had identified eight players as Pandya’s close contact, all of whom are currently quarantined for precaution despite retuning negative tests.

CricTracker understands that neither of these eight players – Krunal Pandya, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw, Deepak Chahar, K Gowtham, Ishan Kishan, Yuzvendra Chahal – will take part in the series further owing to their quarantine and isolation guidelines.

Notably, the BCCI had announced a 25-member squad, including five net bowlers, for the series in question. The ouster of eight members from the 20-member main squad has led the management to include all of them namely Ishan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, Sai Kishore, Simarjeet Singh into the main squad for the upcoming fixtures, scheduled to be played on back-to-back days (July 28 and 29).

The BCCI had yesterday confirmed that the second T20I would be played on July 28, however, recent unconfirmed reports of Indian captain Shikhar Dhawan contracting with Covid-19 had put the series into brief jeopardy. This is the second time this series has faced a Covid-19 hiccup, as earlier Sri Lanka’s head coach Grant Flower and data analyst GT Niroshan had tested positive, forcing the SLC to tweak the series itinerary. As per the original schedule, the series was supposed to end by July 25.

No official word as yet on Shaw and Surkyakumar’s UK departure 

A separate Indian squad led by Virat Kohli is currently in the United Kingdom for the upcoming five-Test series against England, starting August 4 in Nottingham. Due to a spate of injuries in that squad, both Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav have been named as replacements and are set to fly to the UK.

However, the recent developments put their travel plans under dark clouds as they both have been deemed Pandya’s close contact. Meanwhile, there is yet no confirmation regarding how Krunal Pandya contracted with the virus despite being in the bio-bubble.