MUMBAI: The BCCI announced that the second T20I between India and Sri Lanka, originally scheduled to be played on Tuesday, July 27 has been pushed forward by a day and will now take place on Wednesday, July 28.
Following the Rapid Antigen Tests conducted ahead of the match on Tuesday morning, Team India all-rounder Krunal Pandya was found to be positive. The medical teams have identified eight members as close contacts.
The entire contingent underwent RT-PCR tests to ascertain any further outbreak in the squad.
Presuming that there are no further positive cases, the second and third T20Is in the three-match series will now be played back-to-back on July 28 and 29 respectively.
This is the second instance of Covid impacting the India vs Sri Lanka series. The series, which was scheduled to begin on July 13, was pushed back by five days after batting coach Grant Flower and a video analyst had returned positive results. This is also the second case of an Indian cricketer testing positive for Covid in a month, with wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant being the first in England on July 15.
Although the series is not at risk of being terminated (provided there are no more positive cases), the breakout of Covid in the Indian camp is expected to affect the return of the Indian cricket team, which was originally supposed to come back Thursday.
The development is set to have an impact on Suryakumar Yadav and Prithvi Shaw’s departure to England for the Test series, which was lined up for after the end of the T20I series, which India currently lead 1-0, having already wrapped up the ODI leg 2-1.
For the record, the series is being telecast on SONY SIX, SONY TEN 1 in English, SONY TEN 3 in Hindi and SONY TEN 4 channels in Tamil and Telugu.
The LIVE coverage for the matches will start at 7.00 pm IST with Sony Pictures Sports Network’s LIVE studio show – Extraaa Innings.
