Australia's Peter Handscomb Tests Positive For COVID-19 While Playing In County Championship
Published - 12 Jul 2021, 11:48 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:49 AM
Australia batsman and Middlesex captain Peter Handscomb has tested positive for COVID-19 while playing in the ongoing County Championship season.
The 30-year-old was forced out of their Championship Group Two game on Sunday against Leicestershire after getting the test result. Ireland pacer Tim Murtagh took over the interim captaincy duties.
This break for Peter Handscomb comes at an unwanted time as he has been struggling for runs in the season. The right-hander has scored 227 runs in 7 games at an average of 17.46 with a solitary fifty. Middlesex are languishing at the bottom of Group 2 with just 1 win and 1 draw in 9 games.
Peter Handscomb, who last played a Test match for Australia in January 2019 and an ODI in July the same year, would be hoping to make a return to the side for the team for the home Ashes later this year, as the selectors are likely to make changes in the batting department which lost the series to India.
However, for Peter Handscomb, who averages a middling 38.91 so far in 16 Tests, such lowly returns in County cricket won’t be forcing his stake.
Kent forced to name a new squad for County game after entire original squad placed in quarantine
Similar to England’s men’s side, Kent also have been forced to name a brand-new squad for this week’s County Championship match against Sussex at Canterbury, after one of their players tested positive for Covid-19.
The player, who has not been named, returned a positive result on the eve of the match on Saturday. Therefore the entire squad who featured alongside him in Kent’s Blast fixture at the Kia Oval on Friday will now be required to self-isolate for a period of ten days.
Heino Kuhn, who was not a part of Kent’s nine-wicket win over Surrey, has been named as captain for the Sussex encounter. The match was delayed by an hour as the club assembled a new line-up, which comprised second XI players and homegrown prospects. Four players were handed first-class debuts.
