India captain Rohit Sharma was tested for Covid-19 in a Rapid Antigen test on Saturday. The captain is currently being held alone in a team hotel following an infection. BCCI’s official Twitter account has confirmed progress after the end of Day 3 of the ongoing warm-up match between India and Leicestershire. “UPDATE – Captain #TeamIndia Mr. Rohit Sharma was tested for COVID-19 following a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) test on Saturday. He currently stands alone in a club hotel and is under the BCCI Medical Team, ”wrote BCCI.
Rohit was part of the Indian team during the warm-up match, but did not make it to Day 3 as the team lost seven wickets, earning 364 at the end of the match. In the first innings, Rohit scored 25 runs before being sent off by Roman Walker. He also hosted the stadium on the second day as India beat Leicestershire 244. The India captain is now facing a race in time to fully recover before the start of India’s fifth and final Test series against England in July. 1 in Edgbaston.
Rohit is currently India’s top scorer in the series, with 368 runs in four games with an impressive 52.27 average. If Rohit Sharma fails to recover early in the fifth Test, India will enter the field without its first-choice players as KL Rahul has already been ruled out of the series due to injury. There is no other open player in the India Test team other than Shubman Gill and if Rohit really misses the Edgbaston Test, there is a good chance that Hanuma Vihari will open. Vihari previously opened up for India in the 2019 Sydney Test against Australia, where he hit a new ball and hit 8 of 60 balls.
This is the second case of a Covid-19 explosion in an Indian camp on a trip to England. Last week, Indian shooter R Ashwin missed a flight to the UK after returning from a Test. Ashwin arrived in Leicestershire later but did not take part in the four-day training camp despite appearing to be in the lead and throwing in the net. Reports also floated suggesting that Virat Kohli was also Covid-positive when he arrived in England but had recovered even though there was no official announcement made by the BCCI or Kohli himself.
The Indian team is currently playing warm-up against Leicestershire, where even on Day 3 on Sunday, they produced the best batting match with Shreyas Iyer (62), Ravindra Jadeja (56 *), and Virat Kohli (67) who hit the centenary. With Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj (1 *) remains undefeated at the end of the day’s match.
