Second Indian Cricket Player Tests Covid Positive ahead of Commonwealth Games

The top 8 cricketing nations have only one mission ahead and that’s the upcoming Commonwealth Games which are scheduled to get underway on the 29th of July. Nearly every team taking part in the Games have entered their villages including India, but days away from the start of the Games, a strong medal contender team, India have had a double blow come their way.

Second Indian Player Tests Covid Positive ahead of Commonwealth Games. PC: Getty Images

After the recently concluded Apex Council meeting of the Broad of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) president Mr Sourav Ganguly shared an update of a member from the Indian contingent touring England for the Games being down with Covid-19 and it was learnt that she’ll be doing a strict quarantine and after returning a negative test she’ll be flying to Birmingham to regroup with the Indian team.

What’s followed the news is that there is one more such member who’s tested positive and has stayed back which means India ahead of their opener against Australia are a couple of members down. The Indian cricket contingent left for Birmingham on Sunday morning leaving behind a couple of members who’ve tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.

INDIA’S SQUAD FOR COMMONWEALTH GAMES :

Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Sabbhineni Meghana, Taniya Bhatia (Wk), Yastika Bhatia (Wk), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana.

STANDBY PLAYERS: Simran Dil Bahadur, Richa Ghosh, Poonam Yadav.

An Indian Olympic official in his statement to Press Trust of India (PTI) said, “A second player has tested positive for Covid-19 and it happened before departure. Both the players remain in India.” A BCCI official has said, “As per protocol, both players can only join the team once they test negative.”

The Indian team had a camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Bangalore and are set to have their first training camp in Birmingham on Tuesday. With assuming a week-long quarantine it’s unlikely that a couple of unnamed positive members will be joining the Indian camp for their opener against Australia on the 29th of July. The other fixtures of India are against Pakistan on the 31st and then their final league stage game against Barbados on the 3rd of August.