LONDON: Wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant and training assistant/net bowler Dayanand Garani tested positive for COVID-19 in the last week.
Bowling coach Bharat Arun, wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha and reserve player Abhimanyu Easwaran were identified as close contacts of Garani and will undergo 10-day isolation in London before joining the team.
Pant tested positive on 8 July but has remained asymptomatic and is close to full recovery. Upon returning two negative RT-PCR tests, he will join the Indian team in Durham.
The Indian cricket team were on a three-week break after the ICC World Test Championship Final against New Zealand that concluded on 23 June.
The BCCI press release also stated that all the members of the travelling contingent were administered the second dose of the COVID vaccine and are exercising extra caution to avoid any outbreak.
“The entire Indian contingent including travelling family members and caretakers were administered with the second dose of covid vaccine earlier this month in London,” read the release. “To mitigate any further risks, the Indian contingent is taking the Lateral Flow Test on a daily basis.”
The news of Pant testing positive comes in the wake of seven members of the England team, including three players and four staff members, testing positive last week ahead of their limited-overs home series against Pakistan.
In his statement, ECB chief executive Tom Harrison mentioned the Delta variant of the virus without revealing if the squad members were affected by it.
“We have been mindful that the emergence of the Delta variant, along with our move away from the stringent enforcement of biosecure environments, could increase the chances of an outbreak. We made a strategic choice to try to adapt protocols, in order to support the overall wellbeing of our players and management staff who have spent much of the last 14 months living in very restricted conditions,” Harrison had said.
Harrison, meanwhile, has defended his board’s decision to relax the bio-secure environments. Speaking at a virtual press conference, Harrison said: “We want people to be feeling like their life is delivering for them, both at home and as professional cricketers, men and women. We don’t want to be closeting players in such a place where they feel like the only role they play in their life is to is to go out and bat and bowl for whatever team they’re playing.
“I think that’s a bad place for us to be.
“We have to be understanding about what it is to be a responsible employer, to be able to get the best back from players. That’s by treating them like adults, and talking and communicating openly about how we best mitigate the impacts of this ongoing pandemic.
“We are working through that at the moment. Clearly we’ve got to make sure that we protect the India series.”
However, these developments have set the alarm bells ringing across the cricket fraternity. Former England captain Michael Vaughan raised concerns over the upcoming five-Test series between India and England, saying a change to COVID-19 related isolation laws is the need of the hour.
“I fear for the 100 & the Indian Test series unless the isolation laws change .. we are bound to have cases as is the case with @RishabhPant17.. plus further down the line I fear the Ashes could be hugely affected with players pulling out unless bubbles/quarantine rules change!” Vaughan wrote on Twitter.
Sri Lanka toured England before the Pakistan series and upon returning home, they had a virus outbreak in their camp, which forced the postponement of their limited-overs series against India. After Sri Lanka’s batting coach Grant Flower and data analyst GT Niroshan were tested positive, the series was pushed back to July 18 instead of its scheduled commencement on July 13.
The Indian players were allowed to leave the bio-bubble in England and spent time on their own after the World Test Championship final that ended on June 23. The BCCI approved their departure from the bubble with the instruction that the players and the support staff should enter the bubble again mid-July ahead of their five-Test series against England. The first Test starts on August 4.
The Indian team will play a three-day warm-up game against County XI at Emirates Riverside starting on Tuesday, 20 July before the Test series against England commences with the first game on 4 August.
