Krunal Pandya To Remain In Isolation In Sri Lanka; Rest Of The Indian Contingent Left For Home On Friday

India all-rounder Krunal Pandya had to stay back in quarantine in Sri Lanka while the rest of the Indian contingent had left the Island on Friday after completing their tour.

After winning the ODI series, the visitors lost the T20I series as the hosts made a comeback from 1-0 down to win it 2-1; the unavailability of several players allowed Sri Lanka to make that comeback.

On Tuesday, the day of the second T20I, Krunal Pandya returned a positive covid-19 test and was immediately placed in isolation.

8 more players – his younger brother Hardik Pandya, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Deepak Chahar, Krishnappa Gowtham, Ishan Kishan, and Yuzvendra Chahal – were also placed in quarantine as they were deemed close contacts to Krunal Pandya. India then were forced to play with a weaker team in the second and the third T20I.

All of the 8 players had returned a negative test and were allowed to board the plane back home. However, according to the local health rules, Krunal Pandya was needed to be in isolation for a week – 3 days remaining of that.

“Yes, only Krunal will have to stay back in Sri Lanka for the time being due to the mandatory isolation period of one week,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

“After one week, if he has two negative RT-PCR reports, he will be allowed to fly back. Currently he is in the fourth day of his isolation. All others are free to depart as they have all tested negative.”

Uncertainty of Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw’s arrival in England

Since all the players but Krunal Pandya have flown for India, this meant that Suryakumar Yadav and Prithvi Shaw have also left Sri Lanka and it remains unclear when they will fly to England as both of them have been added to India’s Test squad to take on England in the 5-Test series which starts on August 4th.

Because of the mandatory quarantine in place for people from India travelling to the UK, both of them are likely to be unavailable for the first couple of Tests.