Reports | Yuzvendra Chahal and Krishnappa Gowtham return with COVID positive report

After Krunal Pandya tested positive for COVID-19, his close contacts - Hardik Pandya, Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Manish Pandey, Deepak Chahar, Ishan Kishan, Yuzvendra Chahal, K Gowtham - were separated from the rest of the team and ruled out of the final two T20Is against Sri Lanka. And now, as per the latest reports, Chahal and Gowtham have tested positive for the virus. Reportedly, the players established as close contacts were staying back in Colombo even when the rest of the squad departed for India. Now, Chahal and Gowtham will have to stay in isolation and only after returning with negative reports, they will be allowed to return home.

Indian all-rounder Krunal Pandya has already been isolated from the rest of the touring party and is under isolation at a hotel facility. He was ruled out of the series ahead of the second T20I. As a result of the COVID fiasco, the Indian team were forced to field only five batters in the last two games. They lost the T20I series to the hosts 1-2. 

Earlier, at the start of the Sri Lanka tour, two staff members from the Lankan dressing room had also tested positive for COVID-19, which had delayed the commencement of the series. However, despite the various challenges, all the six games of the white-ball series were completed.