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The fifth Test scheduled at Old Trafford, Manchester between England and India has been cancelled as members of the Indian team’s support staff were hit by COVID-19. India were leading 2-1.
The ECB had confirmed cancellation in a statement, Following ongoing conversations with the BCCI, the ECB can confirm that the fifth LV= Insurance Test between England and India Men due to start today at Emirates Old Trafford, will be cancelled.
Due to fears of a further increase in the number of COVID cases inside the camp, India are regrettably unable to field a team.
We send our sincere apologies to fans and partners for this news, which we know will cause immense disappointment and inconvenience to many.
Ahead of the fifth Test, the Indian team’s junior physio Yogesh Parmar tested positive for COVID-19 in Manchester. This led to Team India’s training session for Thursday afternoon being cancelled.
However, there are no COVID-19 related worries in the England camp and Jos Buttler said everything is fine and the hosts are looking forward to the game.
“We don’t know too much about it at the moment. It would be naive to speculate on what’s going on. At the moment we’re fully expecting the game to go ahead and we’re preparing that way so fingers crossed the game will go ahead. Things are fine in our camp and we are looking forward to the game,” said Buttler, during a virtual press conference.
This came after India head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar returned positive results to their RT-PCR tests during the fourth Test.
