India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour on Sunday (September 5) admitted that the tourists were a bit distracted going into day four of the ongoing fourth Test against England at The Oval after the team’s head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive for COVID-19.
He further credited all the players for the way they handled themselves and how they played as a team after almost the entire support staff was put into isolation ahead of day 4’s play against England.
After Shastri’s rapid lateral flow test for COVID-19 returned positive on Saturday evening, the BCCI medical team had isolated Team India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar, and physiotherapist Nitin Patel as a precautionary measure.
Rathour said that the Indian cricket team, despite missing crucial members of the support staff in the ongoing fourth Test, performed extremely well as the visitors posted 466 in the second innings to set a tough target of 368 for England at The Oval.
After the end of the day’s play, Rathour said: “Of course, we are missing them massively. Ravi Bhai (Ravi Shastri), B Arun, and R Shridar, have been an extremely important part of this set-up and they have done extremely well (in) the last five-six years and played a major role in the team doing well.”
The batting coach further explained, “But this is what it is. That’s the fact that they are not here. So, it was in the morning, I think, a bit of a distraction, we had a word; we spoke, (and) decided that we need to focus on what is in hand, which is cricket.”
He added, “So, we are here for this series, it is an extremely important series that we are playing and today when we came in the morning, it was an extremely important day for us, to focus on cricket. So, I think the boys did extremely well, to not get distracted. There was a potential that we can (be) distracted from the situation that happened last night, but a lot of credit goes to the boys, the way they handled themselves and the way we played as a team.”
Rathour also revealed that Shastri underwent a lateral-pro test after he felt a bit of discomfort on Saturday and then the identified close contacts were isolated.
He concluded, “I would not know the exact time, but it was last night around 8 in the night. He was having a little bit of discomfort yesterday, so the medical team decided to go for a lateral-pro test and it came positive and that is when we heard that he is positive and I think, the close contacts were identified and isolated, so we will wait for the medical team on when they can join back.”
(With PTI Inputs)
