5th England-India Test Cancelled Due To COVID Fears, ECB Say ‘India Unable To Field Team’

Mumbai: The fifth Test between England and India in Manchester, which was scheduled to begin today, has been cancelled.

“Due to fears of a further increase in the number of COVID cases inside the camp, India are regrettably unable to field a team,” the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said.

We send our sincere apologies to fans,” the ECB added

Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments confirmed the development and said more test results will be taken into consideration before taking a call. “Yes, it is not starting today. More test results are awaited before a call is taken on starting on Saturday,” the source said.

Ahead of the fifth and final Test against England, Parmar tested positive for COVID-19 in Manchester. Due to this, the training session of Team India was canceled on Thursday afternoon.

This comes after India head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar showed positive results in their RT-PCR tests during the fourth Test. They are currently undergoing isolation and can come out only after two negative results.

Just half an hour before the start of the fourth day of the fourth Test, on Sunday, the BCCI said that its medical team has isolated Shastri, Bharat Arun, Sridhar, and physio Nitin Patel as a precautionary measure after Shastri’s lateral flow test returned positive on Saturday evening.

The remaining members of the Team India contingent had undergone two Lateral Flow Tests — one on Saturday night and another on Sunday morning. The members upon returning negative COVID reports were allowed to proceed for Day 4 of the fourth Test at The Oval against England.

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