India & England Players Tested Negative For COVID-19; Will Train From Tuesday

Members of the England cricket team on Monday tested negative for Covid-19 and are allowed to move out of quarantine period. Now they all are allowed to train and practice at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. The corona sample of the entire team was taken on Sunday and all the players were found negative in the report on Monday.

“All PCR tests from yesterday’s test have returned negative results. The England party are now out of quarantine and will train for the first time as a full group at the stadium tomorrow afternoon 2pm-5pm (IST),” ECB released a statement.

England pace spearhead Jofra Archer, batsman Rory Burns and all-rounder Ben Stokes had already started their training on Saturday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium for the upcoming first Test.

All the players of India are also tested negative for Covid-19. As per the BCCI update, the Indian cricket team completed its quarantine in Chennai today (on Monday). Three RT-PCR tests were performed at regular intervals for Covid-19 and all results have come negative. The team had its first outdoor session on Monday evening and the net session would begin on Tuesday.

England team reached Chennai on Wednesday after winning the Test series 2–0 in Sri Lanka. The four-Test series against Team India is a big challenge for the England team as Virat & Co. are much stronger than Sri Lanka. The Indian team is full of confidence by winning the Test series on Australian soil twice in the last three years. India beat Australia 2–1 in the Test series last month. However, England won the 2–1 Test series in India in 2012, and Root’s team would like to repeat the same feat.

India will play a four-Test series against England beginning February 5. The first Test will be held in Chennai from February 5-9. The second Test will be at the same venue from February 13-17, before the action shifts to Ahmedabad for the last two Tests (Feb 24-28 and March 4-8).

The Test series will be followed by a five-game T20 International series and a three-match ODI series.

England Squad for first two Tests: Joe Root, Jofra Archer, Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.

India Squad (For first two Tests):

Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (WK), Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur.

Net bowlers:

Ankit Rajpoot, Sandeep Warrier, Krishnappa Gowtham, Saurabh Kumar, Avesh Khan

Standby players:

Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Priyank Panchal, KS Bharat