Another member of the Indian cricket team's support staff has tested positive for COVID-19, a day ahead of the fifth and final Test against England in Manchester, according to NDTV sources. India's training session on the eve of the Test has been cancelled as a result. Earlier, head coach Ravi Shastri and fellow members of the support staff -- Bharat Arun, R Sridhar and Nitin Patel -- had gone into isolation in England after Shastri returned a positive test result. According to later reports, two of Shastri's fellow support staff members in isolation had also tested positive.
South African bowlers Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada helped set up an eight-wicket win for Delhi Capitals on Wednesday in an Indian Premier League match that went ahead despite a SunRisers Hyderabad player testing positive for coronavirus. Hyderabad left-arm quick Thangarasu Natarajan and six of his close contacts were isolated hours before the latest match in the Twenty20 tournament in Dubai. An IPL release said Natarajan is "currently asymptomatic" while the contacts and other Hyderabad players all returned negative tests. On the field, Nortje returned figures of 2-12 and fellow Proteas quick Rabada took three wickets to further hurt Hyderabad who managed just 134-9 after electing to bat. Shikhar Dhawan lay the foundations for Delhi's chase with his brisk 42 and then Shreyas Iyer (47) and skipper Rishabh Pant (35) took the team home in 17.5 overs with an unbeaten stand of 67 for the third wicket. The left-handed Dhawan leads the IPL 2021 batting chart with 422 runs including three half-centuries in nine matches. Delhi, who are still searching for their first IPL title, moved back to the top of the eight-team table. Hyderabad stay at the bottom with seven losses from eight matches. "We have one of the quickest bowlers in the world so I think they're great assets to have," Pant said of his team's pace duo of Nortje and Rabada.
Captain Rohit Sharma and star all-rounder Hardik Pandya were not part of the Mumbai Indians playing XI as the IPL 2021 restarted in the UAE with a blockbuster clash between MI and Chennai Super Kings on Sunday. Instead of Rohit, Kieron Pollard walked out to the toss with MS Dhoni. “Rohit is okay, he’ll be fine sooner rather than later, I’m just the captain for today,” Pollard said at the toss. Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. Rohit Sharma had been reportedly carrying a knee injury on the recent England tour. Also missing from the MI playing XI was Hardik Pandya, who has not returned to full fitness since his shoulder surgery. Chief selector Chetan Sharma had said Hardik would be ready to bowl his full quota of overs for India in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White said that given the advice they had received, "there was no way" the New Zealand team could have stayed on in Pakistan. NZC had made the decision to abandon the tour of Pakistan - which comprised three ODIs and five T20Is - minutes before the first match on Friday in Rawalpindi citing security concerns. New Zealand's touring party have now reached Dubai, after leaving Islamabad on a charter flight on Saturday. The contingent of 34 players and support staff will undergo a 24-hour period of self-isolation in their Dubai hotel. Of this group, 24 will return to New Zealand over the next week, as flights and MIQ (Managed Isolation Quarantine) rooms in New Zealand become available. The rest of the touring party will remain in the UAE and link up with New Zealand's T20 World Cup squad, ahead of that tournament which is set to begin on October 17. "We appreciate this has been a terribly difficult time for the PCB and wish to pass on our sincere thanks to chief executive Wasim Khan and his team for their professionalism and care," White said in a statement.