Tarouba (Trinidad), Jan 19: India Under-19 skipper Yash Dhull, his deputy Sheikh Rasheed and four of their teammates have tested positive for COVID-19, forcing them out of the Group B World Cup game against Ireland and seriously jeopardising the side’s campaign here on Wednesday.
Apart from Dhull and Rasheed, batter Aaradhya Yadav, Vasu Vats, Manav Parakh, and Siddharth Yadav were also found infected with the virus.
“Three Indian players had tested positive yesterday and were already isolated. In the morning before match our captain and vice captain also tested positive in Rapid Antigen Test which is not (not considered) conclusive,” a BCCI official said.
“So they, as precautionary measure, were pulled out. The players included skipper Yash Dhull and his deputy Shaikh Rasheed. We only had 11 available players and six isolated,” the official added.
While skipper Dhull and Rasheed featured in the opening game against South Africa, Aaradhya was not part of that game. Nishant Sindhu led the team in the absence of Dhull on Wednesday.
The team played its opening game in Guyana and travelled to Trinidad for the match against Ireland. It is suspected that the infection may have been contracted during their stay in Guyana. India are scheduled to take on Uganda on Saturday and it remains to be seen whether that match goes ahead.
“In case all players remain in isolation, some of the stand-by players could make the main list. We will need to wait as three cases are from RAT test. Let’s hope their RT PCR comes negative,” the BCCI source said.
India had announced a 16-strong squad for the tournament and five stand-by players. The stand-by players are in India as ICC allowed only 17 players. They will have to be flown to the Caribbean for the event.
The mandatory quarantine for COVID-positive players is 10 days and all those isolating right now will be out till the knockout stage of the tournament. If India advance, they will play in the quarter-finals on January 29.
“We are expecting them to be negative by then,” the BCCI source said.
Before the tournament, ICC’s head of integrity Alex Marshall had stated, that “merely registering a positive PCR test result within a team will not result in the automatic postponement or cancelation of fixtures.” (PTI)
