There was a lot of doubt over the game as Indian team physio Yogesh Parmar had tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday.
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The players of the India team have reportedly returned negative COVID-19 results, hours after team physio tested positive for the virus. If the reports are to be believed then the fifth Test match will go ahead as planned on Friday at Old Trafford in Manchester. There was a lot of doubt over the game as Indian team physio Yogesh Parmar had tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday. He had reportedly conducted a number of recovery sessions with the players before he was aware of his coronavirus infection. Parmar is not the only member of the Indian contingent to have tested positive. Head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar, and physio Nitin Patel had all tested positive during the fourth Test match at the Oval.
Parmar had reportedly held a number of recovery sessions with several Indian players until Wednesday. If the match was indeed called off, India would have won the series 2-1. Certainly, a situation that will not go down well with the English contingent as they still have a chance to tie the series. On the flip side, if it was England that were handed the victory after India were forced to forfeit, the series would have been level 2-2 and India would not have recorded a series win at England despite winning more games than the hosts. The situation certainly was not ideal for any of the sides involved.
When asked about the situation earlier in the day, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly admitted that he was unsure whether the match at Old Trafford would go ahead as planned. “We don’t know if the match will happen at the moment. Hopefully, we can get some game,” Ganguly said at the book launch of ‘Mission Domination’ in Kolkata on Thursday.
Earlier, head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach B. Arun, and fielding coach R. Sridhar were diagnosed COVID-19 positive during the fourth Test in London recently. It resulted in all three missing the Oval Test, and if the Manchester Test goes on ahead, they will miss it as well. The virus situation in the Indian camp is surely becoming a rather problematic matter and an air of uncertainty surrounded the fifth Test.
As per a report published in an Indian newspaper The Hindu, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was understood to have been keen on the abandonment of the Test. The aim was to ensure all the players would be available in time for the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) rescheduled second half, starting in the United Arab Emirates from September 19.
India are currently leading England 2-1 in the Test series. Virat Kohli and his boys recorded a mammoth victory in the fourth Test match at the Oval. They have put losing the series beyond all possibility, and a draw in the final match of the series, should it go ahead, would ensure a historic Test series win in the backyard of the Three Lions.
