India's Rishabh Pant Tested Positive for COVID-19: Report

At least one member of the Indian squad in England has tested positive for COVID-19.

Rishabh Pant scored a century for India during the fourth Test against England.

(Photo: BCCI)

A member of the Indian men’s cricket team in England has tested positive for COVID-19 and is in isolation currently.

As per a PTI report, the player in question is wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.

"He (Pant) is in quarantine at an acquaintance's place and won't be travelling with the team to Durham on Thursday," a BCCI official was quoted as saying.

The BCCI is yet to officially confirm the name of the player who has tested positive. Reports claim that the player has been affected by the Delta variant and that he has been positive for a while and is currently recovering well.

Pant had visited the Euro 2020 pre-quarter final between England and Germany and had later tweeted pictures of himself with a few of his friends sitting in the crowd.

Hanuma Vihari and Jasprit Bumrah are the other players to have visited the Wembley to watch Euro 2020. Ravi Shastri and R Ashwin, who played a County Championship match for Surrey this week, had visited Wimbledon.

The unfortunate news comes close on the heels of BCCI Secretary Jay Shah having reportedly sent an email to the Indian contingent, warning them about the rising cases of COVID-19 in UK.

Shah, in his letter, is said to have told the players to stay away crowded places such as Wimbledon and the Euros, both of which recently concluded in the UK.

Earlier ANI, had reported that two members of the Indian contingent had tested positive for COVID-19 during their three-week break after the WTC Final defeat against New Zealand in Southampton.

The Indian team is scheduled to assemble in Durham on Thursday ahead of their three-day warm-up game against a County Championship XI team from 20 July. Understandably, Pant will not be in the squad for this game.

Many stayed with relatives and acquaintances and are said to have travelled around as the country opened up.

This comes on the back of recent multiple COVID-19 positive cases in the England ODI set-up which forced them to isolate their full squad and name a second string side for the series against Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka, who have also just returned from England have seen a couple of COVID-19 positive cases among the non-playing staff. They are slated to play a white-ball series with India in Colombo beginning 18 July.

The first Test against England begins on 4 August.

(With various inputs)