Indian cricket team cancels training prior to the 5th Test

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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India cancel training on eve of fifth Test because of Covid.

India are looking to win in England for the first time since 2007

India have cancelled Thursday's optional training session after another positive Covid-19 test result among their coaching staff.

Players have been told to stay in their hotel rooms after having fresh tests on Thursday morning, with a spokesperson for the India team stating,�everyone is being tested regularly".

Head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive during the fourth Test at The Oval, which India won by 157 runs.

India leads the five-Test series 2-1.

Three other members of the India backroom staff – bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach Ramakrishnan Sridhar and physiotherapist Nitin Patel – isolated after Shastri's positive result as a "precautionary measure".

Indian media are reporting that the latest positive was in close contact with the players in the last Test.

The fifth and final Test is due to start at Emirates Old Trafford on Friday, with players then immediately leaving to play in the rescheduled Indian Premier League in the United Arab Emirates from 19 September.

According to news agency PTI, Board of Control for Cricket in India chairman Sourav Ganguly, speaking at a book launch in Kolkata, said: "We don't know if the match will happen at the moment. Hopefully we can get some game."

England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, who will return to the side after missing the fourth Test for the birth of his second child, said the hosts were preparing on the assumption the game would go ahead.

"At present we're preparing to play tomorrow – fingers crossed the game will go ahead," he said.

"We don't know too much to be honest. It would be naive to speculate too much on stuff I don't know about.

"Things are all fine in our camp – we trained well this morning."

Shastri's result was the first known positive since the series began on 4 August, but India wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and training assistant Dayanand Garani tested positive pre-series.

England have been staying in different hotels to India, and the only interaction the teams have had has been on the field of play.