India vs West Indies: Dhawan, Shreyas, Ruturaj, Saini test Covid positive; Mayank added to squad

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Bengaluru, February 2: In a blow to the ODI series between India and the West Indies 7 members of the Indian team, including batsmen Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad and stand-by pacer Navdeep Saini, have tested positive for Covid-19.

They are currently in isolation in Ahmedabad and the BCCI medical team is taking care of the afflicted. The BCCI has added opener Mayank Agarwal to the squad, said BCCI secretary Jay Shah in a media release.

Apart from the four players, the BCCI said, fielding coach T Dilip, Sports Massage Therapist Rajeev Kumar and local liason officer B Lokesh too have tested Covid-19 positive.

The ODI series, though under no threat of cancellation, might get pushed back by a couple of days but a final call will be taken soon. The series is scheduled for a February 6 start.

The West Indian players are also staying in the same hotel as the Indian team, but on a different floor and there are no cases in the visitors camp as yet. The BCCI will be doing another round of test for the players on Thursday morning (February 3) before arriving at a decision, though.

As per the existing protocol, both India and West Indies teams need to go under isolation for three days.

But those who have been affected by the virus will miss the series as they need 7-day isolation and two negative RT-PCR tests.

“Three players — Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer and Shikhar Dhawan have tested positive. However there are multiple COVID positive cases among non-coaching administrative support staff. It could be between two to four people," a BCCI official told PTI when the development broke late Wednesday night.

The first match was expected to be India’s 1000th ODI match. It is expected that Shahrukh Khan, R Sai Kishore, Rishi Dhawan, who are stand byes, might now get a look-in along with Venkatesh Iyer, who is part of the T20I squad, might getting an extension to the ODI squad as well.

But all this will be decided at a later stage and as of now only Mayank is the addition to the squad and more details will emerge on Thursday.