The Indian camp has been dealt with a major blow ahead of the ODI series against West Indies. Seven members of the hosts camp had tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday evening. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had confirmed the same through a statement yesterday. However, according to some reports, there have been a total of eight positive cases in India's camp.
All-rounder Axar Patel has also tested positive for the coronavirus before joining the team's bio-secure bubble in Ahmedabad. Patel had not joined the team's bubble and was reportedly stopped from boarding the flight to Ahmedabad having tested positive for the virus.
Earlier, on Wednesday, the BCCI confirmed that three players of the main squad, a standby player, three staff members had tested positive for the COVID-19.
The three players who have tested positive are opener Shikhar Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Shreyas Iyer while Navdeep Saini is the standby player to have tested positive. The Indian cricket board also announced the inclusion of Mayank Agarwal to the squad.
India left with only five specialist batters for 1st ODI
As the three players to have tested positive for the virus are all batters, there are now only five specialist batters left in the ODI squad. Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rishabh Pant are the five batters available for the first ODI. KL Rahul will join the team from the second ODI onwards. So, it is going to be a big headache for Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma to include which players in the playing XI for the first game.
While it's quite obvious that all the aforementioned players will be a part of the XI, the real problem will be in choosing between the bowlers. India will want depth in batting. So, they may be compelled to play both Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar. Also, there will be a contest between Sundar and Deepak Hooda to take the sixth spot.