Indian team off to London
The Indian contingent on Monday were off to London for the second Test against England at Lord’s though replacement players, Suryakumar Yadav and Prithvi Shaw, remained in Nottingham to complete their quarantine.
It is learnt that the entire Indian contingent left for London at around 11 am local time after every member tested negative for RT-PCR.
The second Test begins on August 12.
Shaw and Suryakumar, who linked up with the squad in Nottingham on August 3, will only complete their 10-day quarantine on August 13, which means that they can only train from August 14 and will be available for selection from the third Test, starting August 25 at Leeds.
The nine-day gap between second and third Test will certainly give the duo ample chance to train and get match ready in case the team management feels the necessity of playing either of the two.
Ganguly to be present for Lord’s Test
With United Kingdom moving Indian travellers from red to amber list from last Sunday (August 8), BCCI president Sourav Ganguly is set to leave for London on Tuesday to watch the second Test at Lord’s starting August 12.
The move from red to amber list means that any person who is fully vaccinated as per UK health authorities protocol will not need to serve the mandatory 10-day hard quarantine period which the likes of Shaw and Surya are currently serving, having arrived in a commercial flight from Colombo.
It is also expected that secretary Jay Shah, vice-president Rajiv Shukla, treasurer Arun Dhumal might be in the UK to watch the Indian team play at some point during the series.
silverwood warns
England head coach Chris Silverwood fired a warning to his faltering top order batsmen on Monday, indicating that Haseeb Hameed is close to a recall for the second Test against India.
Big top-order runs have been a consistent problem for some time for England with Rory Burns, Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley under the spotlight after failing to register a score of 30 in two innings of the drawn first Test.
“I would rather be accused of giving somebody one too many chances than not enough,” said Silverwood. “But at some point I will have to make a decision.
