Sourav Ganguly, the chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has said he is not sure whether the fifth Test between India and England in Manchester will take place or not. A member of the Indian support staff was tested positive for Covid-19 on September 9, leaving the final Test in jeopardy.
Yogesh Parmar, assistant physio, is tested positive in Manchester and as a result, the last training session of Team India was cancelled.
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Earlier, the head coach Ravi Shastri was tested positive for Covid-19 during The Oval Test. He was put in isolation along with three other members fielding coach R Sridhar, bowling coach Bharat Arun and team physio Nitin Patel, who came in close contact with Shastri.
“We don’t know if match will happen at the moment. Hopefully, we can get some game,” said Ganguly as quoted by PTI.
The final call on the match will be taken once the result of the RT-PCR of Indian players come out.
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India won the fourth Test at The Oval by 157 runs after some sensational fightback. India got all-out for 191 in the first innings and conceded a 99-run lead to England at the halfway mark in the Test. However, Rohit Sharma scored a sensational century in the second innings while the whole middle-order contributed around him.
India gave England a stiff target of 368 in the last four sessions to achieve. The hosts were going good in their pursuit of the target as Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed put a 100-run opening stand. However, things escalated pretty quickly for them on day five. Jasprit Bumrah bowled a fiery bowling spell and crumbled their middle-order.
England got all-out for 210 and lost the Test by 157 runs. India are 2-1 up in the five-match series with the final Test is scheduled to be played in Manchester from September 10.
