As both teams moved to the final to play the fifth and final Test of the five match Test series at the Old Trafford, Manchester, the play was called off due to further increase in the number of Covid cases at the Indian camp. There were also reports of bad weather in Manchester. As per Hindustan Times report, there was a probability of rain accompanied by a thunderstorm with around 2 hours of long precipitation.
It is learnt that the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly after talking to the team in Manchester has raised doubts about the possibility of the fifth test with one more support staff testing positive for Covid-19. India’s pre-match eve practice got cancelled on Thursday, a day ahead of the start of the fifth Test as all the squad members were advised for self-quarantine. From England’s side there were no Covid-19 related worries. “Everything is fine and the hosts are looking forward to the game’’, Said Jos Buttler in the press Conference. Earlier last week coaches Ravi Shastri, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar who tested positive for Covid-19 were forced into quarantine in London and missed the fourth Test at The Oval .Considering the current Covid scenario, ECB after the conversations with BCCI, said in their official statement that ‘India forfeited the match’ and were ‘unable to field’ which led to cancellation of the test.
With the excitement that was scheduled to start at 3:30 PM (IST), Covid-19 became a prime villain in today’s match cancellation. Let’s have our fingers crossed in good hope that the match will take off soon.
