Covid outbreak in India camp: 7 test positive, including Dhawan

NEW DELHI: A Covid-19 outbreak hit the Indian cricket team on Wednesday as three main players—senior opener Shikhar Dhawan, reserve opener Ruturaj Gaikwad and middleorder batter Shreyas Iyer— tested positive for the virus during their mandatory isolation period before the start of West Indies series.

Four others, including net bowler Navdeep Saini, have also tested positive for Covid-19. Saini is also on standby list.

The remaining three who tested positive for the virus are non-playing members—fielding coach T Dilip, security liaison officer B Lokesh and masseur Rajeev Kumar. “The All-India

Senior Selection Committee has added Mayank Agarwal to India’s ODI squad after seven members, including three players of Team India (Senior Men) tested positive for Covid-19 following three rounds of RT-PCR testing,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a statement.

The Indian team assembled in Ahmedabad on January 31 for the upcoming white-ball series against the West Indies and were going through a threeday isolation period post their break from the South Africa series.

The series starts in Ahmedabad on February 6 with India’s 1,000th ODI match but it is now a foregone conclusion that the trio will be missing the series as they will have to undergo a week-long isolation and then return with two negative RT-PCR tests.

Shah gave a lowdown of the sequence of positive cases in the India camp.

“Opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan and fast bowler Navdeep Saini’s (standby player) RT-PCR tests conducted on Monday (January 31) have returned positive results,’ Shah stated in the release.

“Fielding Coach T Dilip and Security Liaison Officer B Lokesh’s RT-PCR tests conducted on Monday (January 31) have returned positive results. Batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad’s RT-PCR test conducted on Tuesday (February 1) has returned a positive result. He had tested negative during the first round of testing on Monday,” the release further stated.