Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant, a player of the Indian cricket team in England has tested positive for Covid -19 virus and is staying in home isolation at the moment. Rishabh Pant is home quarantined and is staying at his relatives’ place at present and is likely to join the tour party in Durham later. The Indian squad sans the player will return to bio-bubble in Durham on Thursday.

Sources said the player experienced a sore throat, which led to a Covid test and it returned positive. His teammates and support staff, who came in contact with the player, were kept in isolation for three days and they have completed their isolation period.

Rishabh Pant
Rishabh Pant | Twitter

Rishabh Pant Who Was Spotted Enjoying An Euro 2020 Match Contracted Covid-19 And Is In Quarantine

A few weeks earlier Rishabh Pant was spotted with a friend at a packed Wembley Stadium enjoying the Euro 2020 knock-out match between England and Germany. As per the report, sources in BCCI claimed that the player in question is wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.

“He (Pant) is in quarantine at an acquaintance’s place and won’t be travelling with the team to Durham on Thursday,” a BCCI source said.

Rishabh Pant was spotted with a friend at a packed Wembley Stadium enjoying the Euro 2020 knock-out match between England and Germany. Image Source : TWITTER
Rishabh Pant was spotted with a friend at a packed Wembley Stadium enjoying the Euro 2020 knock-out match between England and Germany. Image Source: TWITTER

The report further stated that Rishabh Pant has been possibly afflicted by the Delta variant which has led to the rising number of cases in England. In fact, Rishabh Pant has been tested positive for over a week now and has been asymptomatic and recovering well.

“Yes, one player has tested positive but he has been in isolation for the last eight days. He was not staying in any hotel with the team, so no other player has been affected. But I can’t divulge the name of the player,” BCCI Vice President Rajiv Shukla told PTI on Thursday.

“As of now, no other player has tested positive. Also, you must be aware our secretary Jay Shah has written a letter to all players to maintain protocols,” Shukla added.

Earlier, it was reported that two of the 23 Indian cricketers in the ongoing tour of England have tested positive for COVID-19 during the 20-day break and will not be travelling with the team to Durham on Thursday. The report further stated that one of the COVID-19 positive players has already returned negative while the other is in isolation.

England And Sri Lankan Team Also Were Affected By The Virus

The development comes in the wake of BCCI secretary Jay Shah recently sending an e-mail to the Indian contingent in the United Kingdom warning it about the rising cases of COVID-19. The side is to reassemble at Durham in a bio-bubble ahead of the Test series against England next month. On Wednesday, chief selector Chetan Sharma met BCCI president Sourav Ganguly in Kolkata, but both were tight-lipped about what transpired in the meeting.

The news of the Indian cricketer testing positive comes in the wake of the virus sweeping through the England camp ahead of their limited-overs home series against Pakistan. Last week before the first ODI against Pakistan, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that seven members of the team including three players and four staff members tested positive for Covid-19.

Ben Stokes Image Source : GETTY IMAGES
Ben Stokes Image Source: GETTY IMAGES

The development forced a radical overhaul of the England ODI squad, with Ben Stokes being appointed the captain of the team. A second-string England clean-swept Pakistan 3-0 in the ODI series, but the question of how the virus breached the bio-bubble was left answered. In his statement, ECB chief executive Tom Harrison mentioned the Delta variant of the virus without revealing if the squad members were affected by it.

“We have been mindful that the emergence of the Delta variant, along with our move away from the stringent enforcement of biosecure environments, could increase the chances of an outbreak.

“We made a strategic choice to try to adapt protocols, in order to support the overall wellbeing of our players and management staff who have spent much of the last 14 months living in very restricted conditions,” Harrison had said.

Sri Lanka toured England before the Pakistan series and upon returning home, they had a virus outbreak in their camp, which forced the postponement of their limited-overs series against India sans their Test specialists. After Sri Lanka’s batting coach Grant Flower and data analyst, GT Niroshan were tested positive, the series was pushed back to July 18 instead of its scheduled commencement on July 13.

The Indian players in the UK were allowed to leave the bio-bubble in England and spent time on their own after the World Test Championship final that ended on June 23 (reserve day).

The BCCI approved their departure from the bubble with the instruction that the players and the support staff should enter the bubble again in mid-July ahead of their five-Test series against England. The first Test starts on August 4.