India cancelled their final practice session ahead of the fifth Test against England at Emirates Old Trafford after a member of their support staff tested positive for Covid-19; head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive during the fourth Test at The Kia Oval
Thursday 9 September 2021 18:48, UK
India's practice session ahead of the fifth and final Test against England was cancelled on Thursday after a member of their support staff tested positive for Covid-19, an Indian cricket board official said.
Second physio Yogesh Parmar tested positive on Wednesday and the team were awaiting the results of a fresh round of tests carried out on Thursday morning, the official said requesting anonymity.
India head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive during the fourth Test at The Kia Oval and has since been isolating with bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar and physiotherapist Nitin Patel.
India lead 2-1 in the five-Test series after winning the Oval Test by 157 runs. The final Test begins on Friday at Emirates Old Trafford.
Jos Buttler said England have "fingers crossed" that the fifth Test goes ahead on Friday after India cancelled their final pre-match training session amid reports of a new coronavirus scare.
All the tourists' players tested negative on the final day of the fourth Test, but reports from India on Thursday said another member of staff has now contracted the virus. The team's afternoon net session was then scrapped pending further developments.
Nobody from the India squad or Board of Control for Cricket in India was seen at the ground and the mandatory press conference did not place in its usual slot.
England completed their own pre-match preparations shortly after midday and are hoping the fixture goes ahead as planned.
"At present we're fully expecting the game to go ahead and we're preparing to play tomorrow. Fingers crossed the game will go ahead," said vice-captain Buttler.
"We don't know too much to be honest. It would be naive to speculate too much on stuff I don't know about. Things are all fine in our camp. We trained well this morning so, yeah, we're hopefully all looking forward to the game again tomorrow."
Watch the fifth and final Test between England and India live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10am on Friday.
