Reports | Devdutt Padikkal tests positive for Covid-19

In what could be a devastating blow to the Royal Challengers Bangalore side, reports have emerged that youngster Devdutt Padikkal has tested positive for Covid-19. Padikkal, 20, who won the ‘Emerging Player’ award in his debut season and is coming on the back of a record-breaking Vijay Hazare Trophy season, was set to open the batting for RCB alongside Kohli but it is believed that the opener, sometime this week, returned a positive test result. 

TOI reports that the 20-year-old is currently in quarantine after testing positive, and is in a ‘race against time’ to be fit for RCB’s season opener against Mumbai on April 9 at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. 

Should the reports be true, then Padikkal will be the third cricketer to have tested positive ahead of the new season. On Saturday, Delhi Capitals confirmed that Axar Patel had returned a positive result and was hence being monitored by health officials, while Kolkata Knight Riders, three days ago, confirmed that Nitish Rana had caught the virus in late March. These two incidents aside, there were also close to 10 ground-workers in Wankhede, and a content person in the CSK camp, who tested positive for the dreaded virus.