India and Sri Lanka cricketers will be confined to a few more days of hotel stay as the two countries are all set to have their three-match ODI series pushed ahead by a few days owing to the emergence of two coronavirus positive cases in the home team’s camp.
Two of the Sri Lankan support staff members ― batting coach Grant Flower and team analyst GT Niroshan have tested coronavirus positive upon their return to the island nation, which means that the team will remain quarantined and will have to go through further additional tests in order to take part in the series against India.
But reports emerged on Friday claiming that the series, consisting three ODIs and as many T20Is, will be pushed back a few days. The series was slated to start on Tuesday, July 13, and will now begin on Saturday, July 17. The three ODIs will thus be played on July 17, 19 and 21 whereas the three T20Is will be played on July 24, 25 and 27.
After the positive test result for Niroshan, one day after the Sri Lankan batting coach Flower was found infected, the concerns have increased in the home team’s camp as both these members have found to have been infected by the Delta variant of the coronavirus. While both these staff members have been shifted to intermediate care units, the remaining members of the Sri Lankan team (including players) have been forced to isolate for another two days.
The Sri Lankans were supposed to enter the bio-bubble for the series against India on Friday, but a two-day extension to their quarantining will be followed by another round of RT-PCR tests, which will eventually determine if these set of players will be taking part in the series against India or not.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the Sri Lankan cricket board had kept two more squads as a back-up in case of emergency. While one squad is placed in Dambulla, the other is based in Colombo. All matches of the tour are set to be played a the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.