Ravi Shastri, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar, the head coach, bowling coach and fielding coach of the Indian team respectively, have returned positive RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 on Sunday. This will prevent them from travelling to Manchester for the fifth and final Test of India's tour of England, starting September 10 at Old Trafford.
Nitin Patel, the team physiotherapist who, along with Arun and Sridhar, was identified as Shastri's immediate contact and was forced to isolate on Saturday after Shastri returned a positive test, is understood to have returned a negative RT-PCR test.
As per UK government rules, those who return positive RT-PCR tests have to isolate for ten days and return two negative tests, so Shastri, Arun and Sridhar will have to stay on in London even as the series concludes in Manchester.
On Saturday, a BCCI press statement confirmed that Shastri had tested positive and all four support staff members had been placed in isolation in the team hotel by the BCCI medical team "as a precautionary measure".
"They have undergone RT-PCR testing and shall remain in the team hotel and not travel with Team India until confirmation from the medical team," the statement said. "The remaining members of the Team India contingent underwent two lateral flow tests - one last night and another this morning. The members upon returning negative Covid reports were allowed to proceed for Day 4 of the ongoing fourth Test at The Oval."
In the absence of Patel, Yogesh Parmar, the second physiotherapist with the team, was at The Oval for the fourth day of the ongoing Test match.
As such, the two teams are understood to have been in separate bio-secure environments, and have only interacted with each other in the middle, during play.
More to follow…
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo
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