During the recently held white-ball tour of Sri Lanka, India all-rounder Krunal Pandya had tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, he missed the last two games of the T20I series.
Eight Indian team members were deemed Krunal’s close contacts and they couldn’t feature in the last two T20Is as well after being asked to isolate.
More than two weeks later, BCCI's medical officer has now come under the scanner for delaying RT-PCR test by a day despite Krunal’s warning.
According to a PTI report, Krunal, after sensing symptoms like throat pain, had immediately red-flagged team's accompanying doctor Abhijit Salvi on July 26 but neither was a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted right away nor was the player immediately isolated.
The report further claims that Krunal was allowed to attend the team meeting despite throat pain and his RT-PCR Test was conducted on July 27 morning. The test result came late in afternoon after which BCCI and SLC mutually decided to postpone the second T20I by a day.
Later on, his eight close contacts namely Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw, Hardik Pandya, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Krishnappa Gowtham and Ishan Kishan were also tested.
Initially, all of them returned negative but later before the team left Sri Lanka, Gowtham and Chahal were also diagnosed positive.
"Krunal had throat pain on July 26 and he followed the protocol informing the medical officer. It is strange that he should have been immediately isolated with a Rapid Antigen Test (self test kit) done. But nothing of that sort happened," a BCCI source privy to developments told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
"Although Rapid Antigen Test is not conclusive but it's the first part of protocol. But I can confirm, Krunal despite throat pain attended team meeting,"
"In fact, another question that's being raised is how come BCCI's medical team in Sri Lanka agreed to testing every fifth day whereas in IPL, testing is done every third day," the source added.
"Thanks to secretary Jay Shah, who intervened and the crisis of a series cancellation was averted by isolating all close contacts. His move saved the series and also helped the Sri Lankan Cricket board. But had the medical team been pro-active, the situation could have been averted," the BCCI insider said.
When the same news agency contacted Salvi for his stance on this matter, he responded by saying: "I will not make any comments."
During the Sri Lanka tour, the Shikhar Dhawan-led young Indian side clinched the ODI series 2-1 while they suffered a 2-1 defeat in the three-T20I series. The defeat in the shortest format had a lot to do with the COVID-19 case forcing the visitors to not field their first-choice XI.
(With PTI inputs)
