Six India U19 internationals, including captain Yash Dhull and vice-captain Shaik Rasheed, have tested positive for the coronavirus prior to the World Cup game against Ireland on January 19.
This situation left the Indians with just 11 fit players, who all took the field against the Irish. Nishanth Sindhu was named captain in the absence of both Dhull and Rasheed.
The BCCI released a statement clarifying the medical condition of the players, which said that Siddharth Yadav has returned a positive RT-PCR test, Aaradhya Yadav, Shaik, and Dhull have returned positive Rapid Antigen Tests, while Manav Parakh and Vasu Vats, who showed symptoms of the virus, went into isolation. RT-PCR test results of these players are awaited.
The board also ensured that they were monitoring the situation very closely, and that they were constantly in touch with the medical supervisory team, who are in charge of the situation in the Caribbean.
“The players will remain in isolation but will be under the constant supervision of the BCCI Medical Team.”
read the statement, which released late on Wednesday.
The situation left India with only 11 available players, but still managed to post a crushing victory over the Irish youngsters, winning by 174 runs. They are next scheduled to play Uganda on January 22.
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The BCCI had, prior to the tournament, announced that there would be five travelling reserves: Rishit Reddy, Uday Saharan, Ansh Gosai, Amrit Raj Upadhyay and PM Singh Rathore. However, none of them have travelled to the Caribbean and are all still in India.
If needed, games can be rescheduled as per the tournament regulations, as the ICC have assured that they will try to ensure that cancelled games get rescheduled without unreasonably impacting the participating teams.
However, the ICC have added a caveat to this provision, stating that the rescheduling will take place “within reason and without unreasonably impacting on the participating teams or on the staging of other matches“.
