Sickness bug prompts England precautions

ENGLAND had to take precautionary measures to prevent an outbreak of sickness as they headed into the fifth and final

Test against India.

Young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir and seamer Ollie Robinson woke up on Wednesday feeling under the weather, so the pair missed the afternoon’s practice and were separated from the rest of the team.

While Robinson has been replaced by Mark Wood as England try to salvage a consolation win in the final match in Dharamsala, which started on Thursday, Bashir was retained as one of two spinners alongside slow left-armer Tom Hartley.

Ben Stokes doubted a late change will be necessary, even if two umpires stopping at the team hotel are also unwell.

Illness to on-field official Joel Wilson and TV umpire Kumar Dharmasena might led to fourth umpire Jayaraman Madanagopal being on standby for duties in the middle.

“I don’t think it’s anything to be too concerned about,” said the England captain, whose side trail 3-1 in the five-match series.

“The day before the game you don’t want to put anybody at risk so we’ve decided to keep them away from the team. It’s the sensible thing to do.

“When you’ve got so many people contained in the same space all the time you want to limit the chance of it spreading. It’s not a major issue, we just wanted to safeguard against anything spreading to someone else.”

Stokes had “not thought too far ahead” about contingencies, although England are down to two frontline spinners after electing against drafting in replacements when Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed returned home.