Rohit Sharma tests positive for Covid-19, might miss Test against England

Team India has suffered a massive blow asTeam India has suffered a massive blow as their captain Rohit Sharma has tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the fifth rescheduled Test match against England. BCCI confirmed the news on Saturday on their Twitter account after a Rapid Antigen Test.
their captain Rohit Sharma has tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the fifth rescheduled Test match against England. BCCI confirmed the news on Saturday on their Twitter account after a Rapid Antigen Test.

It’s a big blow for the visitors as KL Rahul is already ruled out of the Test match due to a right groin injury. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma had scored 368 runs in four Test matches against England in 2021 at an average of 52.57 while opening for the first time in foreign conditions. Rohit scored 25 runs in the first innings in the warm-up match against Leicestershire.

BCCI wrote in their Twitter post, “UPDATE – #TeamIndia Captain Mr Rohit Sharma has tested positive for COVID-19 following a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted on Saturday. He is currently in isolation at the team hotel and is under the care of the BCCI Medical Team.”

BCCI didn’t mention how many days Rohit Sharma will have to spend in isolation. However, it is expected that Rohit might have to spend at least a week in isolation before returning at least two negative results before he would be given a green signal to rejoin the team.

Thus, there will be doubts over Rohit’s participation in the rescheduled Test match against England. In fact, Rohit and Shubman Gill were expected to open the innings in the absence of KL Rahul.

If Rohit Sharma is ruled out of the first Test match then Shubman Gill might open the innings with Hanuma Vihari as the latter had opened the innings in the Melbourne Test match against Australia back in the 2018-19 tour.

Furthermore, Jasprit Bumrah could lead India in Rohit Sharma’s absence and this will be the first time the gun fast bowler will lead the national team.

On the other hand, England is in fine form as they have taken a 2-0 lead against New Zealand in the ongoing Test series.

India’s Test squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.