India A had a tough time out in the middle on the penultimate day of their third and final unofficial Test versus South Africa A in Bloemfontein. At stumps on Day III, South Africa A was well placed at 196/1 with a lead of 188 after India A were all out for 276.
The biggest fears of the Indian cricket board almost came true on Wednesday evening as two India A team coaches in South Africa tested positive for Covid-19 initially before further investigation confirmed their result as false positives.
South Africa A is currently leading by 188 runs after India A claimed a slender eight-run lead in their first innings. Hanuma Vihari and Ishan Kishan were among the runs once again, with both players recording half-centuries.
India A Team’s 2 Coaches Tested False Covid-19 Positives While All Players Tested Negative And The Last 4 Day Game Continued
India A team is playing its last four-day game in Bloemfontein and all players, along with the support staff, underwent RT-PCR tests on Wednesday morning. As all the players’ tests returned negative, the team decided to continue the game. Two India A team coaches tested positive in South Africa, even though there is no clarity on whether they have been infected with the Omicron variant.
Dr. Shuaib Manjra, the chief medical officer of Cricket South Africa, said: “On further investigation, the labs confirmed the test as negative, indicating that the initial result was a false positive.”
After the initial positive results, the two coaches were asked to isolate for the next 24 hours. It is learned that the India A support staff got to know about the coaches testing positive during the third day’s play in Bloemfontein. The match carried on as the two coaches went back to the hotel and isolated themselves.
The India A games are being played in a bio-bubble. It is learned that before the tour game kicked on, one of the coaches, Sairaj Bahutule, had a fever and isolated himself in his room for two days. His report came back negative then. The BCCI had sent Sairaj Bahutule as bowling coach, Saurashtra’s Sitanshu Kotak as batting coach, and Assam’s Subhadeep Ghosh as fielding coach.
The first 2 unofficial Tests were drawn. South Africa’s Sarel Erwee, Tony de Zorzi, and Pieter Malan are leading the batting charts followed by Hanuma Vihari and Abhimanyu Easwaran. Navdeep Saini (11 scalps), Lutho Sipamla (8 scalps), and Glenton Stuurman(7 wickets) are leading the bowling charts.
Brief scores: South Africa A 268 & 196/1 (S. Erwee 85 batting, Z. Hamza 78 batting). India A 276 (I. Kishan 91; L. Sipamla 5/99). Stumps, Day III
Indian Senior Team To Depart For South Africa On December 16
The senior Indian team has delayed its tour to South Africa by a week after there was a proliferation of infections from the new Covid variant Omicron in that country. The squad will now depart for South Africa on December 16. As for the senior team’s tour, the Test squad was announced by the BCCI on Wednesday along with the appointment of Rohit Sharma as the captain of the ODI team. He was also elevated to the position of vice-captain of the Test team.
Cricket South Africa has assured a strict bio-bubble for the visitors, much like the one in place for India A. The board has already postponed all of their domestic encounters as they were not being played inside a bio-bubble.
There were no surprises in the Indian team apart from the exclusion of injured players – Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, and Axar Patel. The trio played in the recently concluded 2-match Test series versus New Zealand but will not be available to the team when they tour South Africa this month.
India’s Test squad for South Africa tour: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Md. Siraj.