The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 encounter between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday has been rescheduled after 2 players in Eoin Morgan’s team tested positive for COVID-19.
Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy and pacer Sandeep Warrior are the two players who contracted coronavirus, the tournament officials confirmed. Match 30 of IPL 2021 between KKR and RCB was scheduled to be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad this evening but it will now be played at a later date.
“Varun Chakaravarthy and Sandeep Warrier were found to be positive in the third round of testing in the last four days. All other team members have tested negative for COVID -19.
“Both the players have isolated themselves from the rest of the squad. The Medical Team is in continuous touch with the duo and are monitoring their health. Meanwhile, the Kolkata Knight Riders have now moved towards a daily testing routine to identify any other possible cases and treat them at the earliest,” IPL said in a statement.
RCB players were supposed to wear a specially-made blue jersey for this match to honour the frontline workers fighting day and night against the Covid-19 pandemic in India. But they will have to delay their plans it seems after this latest development. RCB had defeated KKR by 38 runs the first time thet met this season in Chennai last month.
The entire Kolkata squad, along with the support staff, has gone into isolation in their team hotel. Notably, KKR had suffered a Covid scare even before the tournament began when opener Nitish Rana had contracted the virus.
IPL 2021 is being played in bio-bubbles across 6 cities – Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru. As per reports, the KKR players who tested positive did not breach the bubble but had to go to the hospital to get some checks done which is probably when they picked up the virus.
5 players have already left the tournament mid-way into the 14th season as India continues to fight the dangerous second wave of Covid. The country is dealing with an acute shortage of oxygen, hospital beds and even vaccines amid the rapid rise in corona cases.
Andrew Tye (Rajasthan Royals), Liam Livingstone (Rajasthan Royals), Ravichandran Ashwin (Delhi Capitals), Adam Zampa (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and Kane Richardson (Royal Challengers Bangalore) are the cricketers who have pulled out of IPL 2021 so far.
India witnessed a slight dip in the daily Covid-19 cases on Monday as it registered over 3.68 lakh fresh cases in the past 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry. A total of 3,417 people succumbed to the virus in the past 24 hours, pushing the overall death toll to 2,18,959.
A total of 3,00,732 people recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours. There are 34,13,642 active Covid-19 cases in India. So far, 15,71,98,207 people have been vaccinated against the Covid-19 infection.
