England head coach Chris Silverwood will miss the 4th Ashes Test in Sydney as one of his family members was tested positive for Covid-19. Silverwood and his family have been asked to isolate themselves for 10 days, according to a release by the ECB.
The fourth Ashes Test will be played from January 5 in Sydney. Australia is currently leading the series by a 3-0 margin with 2 more matches to go.
Notable that this is the 7th Covid positive case in England camp, three of them are support staff members while the other 4 are family members. There will be another round of testing before both the teams will fly to Sydney.
“A fourth successive round of PCR tests will be administered today (Thursday). Both teams – England and Australia – are due to fly to Sydney via a chartered flight on Friday morning,” ECB released a statement.
Assistance coach Graham Thorpe will take the charge in Silverwood’s absence. Notable that England has been criticized from all corners for their lackluster performance in the series. However, Chris Silverwood was quite optimistic about England’s chances and wanted to test some new players in the upcoming two test matches.
“We want to take something away from this series and we want to come back and compete in the last two Test matches. We do have some world-class players and some youngsters as well who are learning on the job constantly,” Silverwood spoke to BT Sport after Melbourne Test defeat.
“What we have to do is try and give them some confidence, we know they have ability and we do back them. We have to give them the opportunity to come out and show what they can do in the last two Tests,” he added further.
Australia has dominated England in the first three Tests. Barring captain Joe Root and Dawid Malan, no England batter could reach the fifty-mark. Their bowling hasn’t been great either the visitors failed to take 20 wickets in the last 8 Tests in Australia.
After the Ashes England will play 5 T20I series in West Indies for which all the members from the Ashes series have been given a break. Former England all-rounder Paul Collingwood will take up the coaching role for the series.
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