COVID hits IPL: KKR-RCB match rescheduled after two players test positive

New Delhi: Monday’s IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Ahmedabad has been postponed after two KKR players — Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier — tested positive for COVID-19, a BCCI source told PTI.

The match will be rescheduled sometime later during the tournament, which is scheduled to conclude on May 30.

Although there is no official word from the BCCI yet, but it is learnt that leg-spinner Chakravarthy and pacer Warrier, both 30, are the players who have been infected by the virus. Of the two, Warrier has not yet made the playing XI in any of the seven matches KKR have played.

”Two members of the contingent have tested positive for COVID but we are waiting for their second test reports to avoid the false positive scenario that happened with Anrich Nortje of Delhi Capitals earlier,” the source said on conditions of anonymity.

KKR last played on April 29 against Delhi Capitals in Ahmedabad and the development is bound to trigger some anxiety in the league, which had been going along smoothly so far. ”Now, the DC players will also have to be tested and every member of the team contingents that came in contact with Chakravarthy and Warrier will also be contact traced through the app watch that has been given to everyone,” the source said.

”The other members of KKR contingent have tested negative but since the second RTPCR report of these two cannot be out before evening, the match couldn’t have gone ahead,” he added.

It is learnt that KKR’s pace spearhead Pat Cummins revealed the latest development to all the Australian players in the IPL after Chakravarthy, while undergoing some shoulder scans for a niggle, tested positive for the virus.

He has appeared in all KKR matches and been one of their most successful players with seven wickets so far.

IPL had dealt with positive cases before the tournament started, including some high-profile names like Axar Patel and Devdutt Padikkal.

However, this is the first instance of positive cases in the middle of the tournament.

Just days before this, three Australian players had pulled out of the league, citing COVID-19 concerns amid a devastating second wave of the global pandemic that has overwhelmed the medical infrastructure of the country.

India are currently recording over 3 lakh cases everyday and more than 3,000 daily deaths.