NEWS
Follow UsIshan Porel, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Singh, R Sai Kishore and Simarjeet Singh, who were all taken to Sri Lanka as net bowlers, have been added to the main squad for the remaining two T20Is, the Board of Control for Cricket in India confirmed on Wednesday (July 28).
The BCCI was forced to make this move after eight of India's regular players were isolated for being in close contact with Krunal Pandya, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. However, after undergoing RT-PCR tests, everyone sans Krunal Pandya returned negative reports.
Hardik Pandya, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Krishnappa Gowtham, Ishan Kishan, Manish Pandey and Deepak Chahar are the eight players who won't be available for the last two T20Is. The second T20I was pushed back from Tuesday to Wednesday after Krunal tested positive.
India handed debuts to Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Chetan Sakariya and Nitish Rana in the second T20I. The Men in Blue didn't have a single batsman on standby and were forced to go with only five frontline batsmen in the second encounter.
"Based on the request of the Indian team management in Sri Lanka, the All-India Senior Selection Committee has named additions to India’s squad for the second and third T20Is. Following the test on 27th July, a Rapid Antigen test was also conducted today (28th July) at noon and they have all returned negative results," the BCCI stated in a press release.
India's XI for the second T20I: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (wk), Nitish Rana, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Chetan Sakariya, Varun Chakravarthy.
The visiting side won the first T20I by 38 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.