Ashwin missed England flight after testing Covid +ve
Senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has not travelled to the United Kingdom along with his India team-mates for the one-off ‘fifth Test’ after testing positive for COVID-19, a BCCI source said.
Ashwin is currently in quarantine and will only join the squad after meeting all protocols requirements.
The Indian team had left for UK on June 16.
“Ashwin hasn’t travelled with the squad to UK as he has tested positive for COVID-19 before departure. But we are hopeful that he will recover well in time before the Test match starts on July 1,” the BCCI source said.
“However, he might miss the practice game against Leicestershire,” the source added.
After the IPL, Ashwin had played a Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) League red-ball match where he had bowled 20 overs to get some long form game time.
On Tuesday in a later update via IANS, it is reported that Ashwin will reach England in the next couple of days. He is expected to join the squad in Leicester before the four-day warm-up game against the county which begins on June 24.
It has been learnt that new travel arrangements are being made for the veteran cricketer and he should be with the rest of his teammates soon, a Cricbuzz report said.
Jayant Yadav was kept as a standby should Ashwin fail to recover in time. The Haryana spinner was called to the NCA in Bangalore. However, that option has been ruled out as Ashwin has recovered fully and is expected to fly out in the next 24 hours, most probably on Wednesday.
