Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma has been infected with Corona a few days before the fifth test match against England. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) gave this information through an official release and also posted the information on its Twitter handle. The board tweeted and said, “Team India captain Mr Rohit Sharma has been found corona positive in the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted on Saturday. He is currently in isolation at the team hotel and is under the care of the BCCI medical team.
Whether the 35-year-old Indian captain will be able to play Test matches or not will now depend on his RT-PCR test and recovery. If Rohit does not play the Test, then either Rishabh Pant or Jasprit Bumrah can get the command of Team India. In the recent media reports, it was said that Rishabh Pant will be the vice-captain of the team in the absence of KL Rahul. Cheteshwar Pujara is also being looked at as an alternative.
UPDATE – #TeamIndia Captain Mr Rohit Sharma has tested positive for COVID-19 following a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted on Saturday. He is currently in isolation at the team hotel and is under the care of the BCCI Medical Team.
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 25, 2022
Rohit Sharma was part of the squad that will take on Leicestershire in the four-day warm-up match ahead of the fifth and deciding Test against England. The Test match will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 1. Rohit batted in the first innings on Thursday but did not come out to bat in India’s second innings on Saturday. He scored 25 runs before being dismissed in the first innings of the practice match.
India lead 2-1 in the Test series against England. Under Rohit’s captaincy, Team India defeated Sri Lanka 2-0 in the home Test series. He was captaining the team for the first time in Tests. Due to the unavailability of Rohit, the biggest challenge before Team India is who will open with Shubman Gill? KL Rahul is already injured. In the second innings of the practice match, Sreekar Bharat had opened. Apart from this Hanuma Vihari is also an option. He opened against Australia in the year 2019.
Earlier last week, spinner R Ashwin could not catch a flight to Britain after being infected with Corona. He later joined Team India during a practice match in Leicestershire, but did not take part in the four-day practice match. However, he was seen bowling in the nets. There was also news of Virat Kohli being infected with Corona.