CHENNAI: India's assistant physiotherapist Yogesh Parmar testing positive for Covid has put the Manchester Test in jeopardy. Talks are now underway between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to decide if the Test should go ahead.
India's head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar had earlier tested positive and are already in isolation in London.
Despite the attempts to salvage the Test, The New Indian Express understands that the chances of the match happening are very remote at this stage, with several Indian players having received treatment from Parmar. Although all of them are fully vaccinated, going ahead with the match in the circumstances is being seen as a high-risk decision. It is important to note that Parmar travelled with the rest of the team in a coach that had many of the regular players in the XI.
As things stand, the players have all been subjected to RT-PCR tests. India's practice session was cancelled on Thursday, and everyone has been placed under isolation until further notice. Although both the BCCI and ECB had been confident of the series being completed despite the three coaches testing positive during the Oval Test that India famously won to go 2-1 up, the latest development has forced a rethink.
With the main physiotherapist Nitin Patel placed under isolation after being identified as a close contact of Shastri, Parmar has been handling the team since the fifth day of the Oval Test.
Even though Patel has since rejoined the team after returning negative in the RT-PCR test, he is still under isolation in Manchester.
So, Parmar had been attending to the players including Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammed Shami, all of whom had niggles. It is understood that Parmar developed symptoms on Wednesday, after India's first training session at Old Trafford.
In case there are any more positive cases, especially among players, it could have an impact on the Indian Premier League too, which the BCCI is now concerned about.
All the IPL-bound players are supposed to travel to the UAE on September 15, with the suspended tournament resuming on September 19. Any more positive cases will hit this plan as the players may be forced to undergo a mandatory quarantine period in the UAE, from which the BCCI has currently availed an exception.
It is understood that both the boards are prepared to wait till Friday morning when they will assess the situation and take a call because World Test Championship points are up for grabs. In case it is not practically possible to complete the series now, there are indications that the ECB will push for the Test to be played next year when India tour England for a white-ball series.
There are though few takers for this idea from the BCCI end as a separate squad has to be taken and the conditions could change, which also seems to be a focal point of discussion. Should the tour be cancelled at this stage, India will be declared winners of the Pataudi Trophy, with the points of the fifth Test shared between both teams.