India Tour of Sri Lanka: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Sri Lanka Cricket are waiting anxiously for Kusal Perera & Co’s COVID test report after their return from England ahead of the limited-overs series in Colombo. The entire side has been quarantined upon their return on Tuesday after 7 members of the England team including three players tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Perera & Co mingled with the lot in Bristol and there is the possibility of positive cases in the Lanka camp. Sri Lanka will face Shikhar Dhawan-led Team India in three ODIs and as many T20Is from July 13.
The entire England squad was forced to isolate after multiple positive cases in the camp ahead of their limited-overs series against Pakistan and were forced to name nine uncapped players. A similar situation can evolve in Sri Lanka. Currently, all the players and staff members are being tested for COVID and the results are expected on Wednesday.
Also Read: India Tour of Sri Lanka: Will 7 positive tests in England squad impact India vs Sri Lanka series?
“We arrived here [in Colombo] and we haven’t been allowed to enter our rooms without the result of a rapid antigen test, which luckily, I think most of our squad have got through. We’ve done another PCR where the results come out tomorrow (Wednesday). At the end of that ODI there was a fair amount of banter between the two teams – quite a lot of chat and quite a lot of talk – so it did bring about some anxious times,” Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur told ESPNCricinfo.
India Tour of Sri Lanka: Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Cricket will also increase the testing frequency to ruled out any false-negative results. “The players will undergo an appropriate quarantine period allocated by the Ministry of Health and frequent PCR tests before they begin training (for the India series),” one of the team doctors told Daily Mirror Sri Lanka.
India Tour of Sri Lanka: Not just Sri Lanka Cricket though, alarm bells have also started ringing in BCCI. InsideSport.co spoke to the board’s treasurer Arun Dhumal who declared that team management has been communicated to be a little extra cautious because of the bio-bubble breach in the England camp.
“Yes, we are aware of the situation. But our message to the team is the same as it was before. Before their departure, we asked them to take extra precautions regarding COVID. The team in Sri Lanka is following all the necessary protocols. But we are obviously monitoring the situation regarding the England team incident. If there is any development in the Sri Lanka team that went to the UK, we will take a call accordingly,” Arun Dhumal told InsideSport.
As it stands, Kusal Perera led squad could go under several changes if there is a single positive result. As in the case of England, Sri Lanka will be forced to field a rather second-string side as the entire squad will be under quarantine for a minimum of 10 days. That means all of them will miss the first two ODIs in Colombo.
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