All eight Indian players identified as all-rounder Krunal Pandya’s close contacts in Colombo have given negative tests for COVID-19, paving the way for the T20I series against Sri Lanka to resume on Wednesday (July 28).
Krunal’s positive test for the contagious virus on Tuesday morning brought the series to an abrupt halt as the second T20I had to be postponed from its original date and rescheduled for the day later.
BCCI stated at the time that:
The entire (Indian) contingent is undergoing RT-PCR tests today to ascertain any further outbreak in the squad. The results of those tests have now come out negative on all players.
That, however, doesn’t mean the T20I series with Sri Lanka is not free of the cancellation threat. It isn’t yet certain if the players testing negative after being deemed as Krunal’s close contacts, will be allowed to take any further part on the tour.
According to reports, stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, K Gowtham, Ishan Kishan, Manish Pandey & Devdutt Padikkal are in isolation ahead of the second T20I, whose faith hangs in a balance.
If these players aren’t allowed to play, India will be left to pick a playing XI from the 10 members left in their originally selected squad and four standbys that were named.
Hopefully the match could be played today.
Cricbuzz quoted a Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) official as saying.
The official also confirmed that Krunal has been shifted to another hotel facility, while the rest of the Indian contingent remains based at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Galle Street of Colombo.
Yes, we have moved Krunal to an intermediate care hotel Mount Lavinia.
confirmed SLC secretary Mohan de Silva.
But it is not clear for how long Krunal will remain under isolation from the rest of the team and more importantly, who are the players available to coach Rahul Dravid and his team to pick for the last two T20Is.
