Vikram Rathour, India batting coach on Sunday said the team was naturally a bit distracted going into day four of the fourth Test after head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive for COVID-19.
The BCCI medical team had isolated Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar, and physiotherapist Nitin Patel as a precautionary measure after the head coach’s lateral flow test returned positive on Saturday evening.
Vikram Rathour: Missed Ravi Shastri, Bharat Arun, And R Sridhar Massively Which Was A Bit Of Distraction But Credit Goes To The Team For Handling It Well
Ravi Shastri, fielding coach R Sridhar, bowling coach Bharat Arun and physio Nitin Patel have been isolated from the rest of the Indian team after the head coach’s Covid-19 lateral flow test returned positive.
“Of course, we are missing them massively. Ravi Bhai (Ravi Shastri), B Arun, and R Shridar, they have been an extremely important part of this setup and they have done extremely well (in) the last five-six years and played a major role in the team doing well,” Vikram Rathour said after the end of day’s play.
India was in a commanding position after scoring 466 in the second essay, courtesy of a memorable hundred by Rohit Sharma and equally important knocks by Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur, and Rishabh Pant.
“But this is what it is. That’s the fact that they are not here. So, it was in the morning, I think, a bit of a distraction, we had a word, we spoke, (and) decided that we need to focus on what is in hand, which is cricket,” said Vikram Rathour.
“So, we are here for this series, it is an extremely important series that we are playing and today when we came in the morning, it was an extremely important day for us, to focus on cricket. So, I think the boys did extremely well, to not get distracted. There was a potential that we can (be) distracted from the situation that happened last night, but a lot of credit goes to the boys, the way they handled themselves and the way we played as a team,” added Vikram Rathour.
England finished Day 4 at 77-0 by battling out the entirety of the final session. The fixture is well poised at the moment with the hosts needing 291 more runs to win the match while India needs to claim all the 10 wickets to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Openers Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed gave England a solid start as they ended at 77/0 at Stump’s on Day 4 of the fourth Test at The Oval.
Vikram Rathour is a former Indian cricketer & present India’s batting coach, who played in 6 Tests and 7 ODIs from 1996 to 1997. He was a right-handed opening batsman. Vikram Rathour was a prolific run-scorer at the first-class level, scoring 11473 runs at an average of 49.66 in 146 matches.
Vikram Rathour: Ravi Shastri Had A Litle Bit Of Discomfort On Saturday
The batting coach also revealed that Ravi Shastri felt a bit of discomfort on Saturday after which the test was conducted. Shardul Thakur and Rishabh Pant scored incredible individual fifties as they propelled India to 466 runs in the second innings. India started the day poorly as they lost the wickets of Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, and Ajinkya Rahane in the morning session.
“I would not know the exact time, but it was last night around 8 in the night. He was having a little bit of discomfort yesterday, so the medical team decided to go for a lateral-pro test and it came positive and that is when we heard that he is positive and I think, the close contacts were identified and isolated, so we will wait for the medical team in when they can join back, he added.
Shardul Thakur (60 off 72) struck his second fifty of the match and shared a hundred-run stand with Rishabh Pant (50 off 106) to put India in a strong position. India’s innings lasted 148.2 overs.
England 290 and 77 for 0 (Hameed 43*, Burns 31*) need 291 more runs to beat India 191 and 466 (Rohit 127, Pujara 61, Thakur 60, Pant 50, Woakes 3-83)