Rohit Sharma, who has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time, has been ruled out of the 5th Test against England, which will be played on July 1, PTI reported. Jasprit Bumrah will be leading, making him the only fast bowler after Kapil Dev to lead India’s Test side. 

Sharma led the Indian team on the first day of the warm-up game against Leicestershire. He, however, tested positive for COVID-19 in a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) on Sunday and was placed in isolation.

“Team India captain Mr Rohit Sharma has tested positive for COVID-19 following a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted on Saturday. He is currently in isolation at the team hotel and is under the care of the BCCI Medical Team. An RT-PCR test will be conducted on Sunday to ascertain his CT value,” BCCI Secretary Jay Shah had said in a media release.

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Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had also joined the India squad in England late since he had also tested positive for the virus before the team left for the UK tour on July 16. 

“Ashwin hasn’t travelled with the squad to UK as he has tested positive for COVID-19 before departure. But we are hopeful that he will recover well in time before the Test match starts on July 1. However, he might miss the practice game against Leicestershire,” a BCCI source had told PTI at the time. 

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India Squad: Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah (C), Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Srikar Bharat (wk), Mayank Agarwal

England Squad: Ben Stokes (Captain), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Sam Billings, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Matthew Potts, Ollie Pope, Joe Root.