Senior legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal and spin-bowling allrounder K Gowtham have both tested positive for Covid-19 while on tour in Sri Lanka. The two were part of the group of eight players who had earlier been identified as immediate contacts of allrounder Krunal Pandya, who had tested positive on July 27.
Chahal and Gowtham, along with Krunal, will have to stay back in Colombo for the time being, while four out of the other six players - Krunal's brother Hardik, Manish Pandey, Deepak Chahar and Ishan Kishan - will be returning home along with the rest of the Indian squad, which is scheduled to fly back to India on Friday afternoon.
It is understood that the pair of Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav, who were among Krunal's eight immediate contacts, will not leave for India with the others but stay back in Colombo and fly out to England soon to join the Indian Test squad.
ESPNcricinfo has learned that Chahal and Gowtham tested positive on Friday. Incidentally, they had both tested negative along with the other six players on Thursday, the day of India's final match of the tour.
While Krunal was moved to an isolation facility immediately after he tested positive in both the Rapid Antigen and RT-PCR tests on July 27, the remaining eight players were staying at the team hotel, but separated from the rest of the touring party.
Krunal is expected to spend at least another week in the Colombo isolation facility, and fly back to India once he has cleared the mandatory tests, a process that now applies to Chahal and Gowtham too.
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo
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