"How many bubbles can they do?" - Dinesh Karthik defends India players after fifth Test gets canceled

Dinesh Karthik has explained why the Indian players were not comfortable taking the field for the fifth Test in Manchester. The assistant physio had tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the fifth Test, and that is where Karthik believes the Indian team members got a bit worried.

The coaching staff and main physio Nitin Patel had already tested positive during the fourth Test and had to be isolated. However, it was the assistant physio's positive result that proved to be a cause for concern and a few Indian players didn't want to take the field after that.

Explaining the issue, Dinesh Karthik told Sky Sports:

"They are tired and they have only one physio right now. They had two, but before this, one went down along with the chief coach, another couple of the coaches. So they had one physio, so they've done a lot of work with that man. And now he tests positive. Now, that is the problem I think that's when they got the jitters a little bit."

Dinesh Karthik also stressed on how staying in a bio-secure bubble for a long time could have a negative impact on the players. He revealed that the players are extremely tired and have been in England for a long time. In this regard, Karthik said:

"You also have to understand, as soon as this finishes, they have the IPL and soon after that the World Cup, and soon after that the New Zealand series and we are talking about literally one week turnarounds. How many bubbles can they do? When they left, when they rather assembled in India, they assembled on May 16. It's four months, almost four months. That's a lot of time already."

Most players haven't even slept till 3 o'clock: Dinesh Karthik

Karthik also explained that even after returning a negative RT-PCR test, a player is still not out of danger. There is an incubation period of three days after which the player might return a positive result. If that would have happened during the game, it would have affected many more players.

"Most of them haven't even slept till 3 o'clock so the Test match happening today was out of the question almost. It's whether they can delay it further, but you have to imagine, you have to remember that there is a good chance that in the RT-PCR test three days later, someone could test positive and if he's in the playing 11, then what happens to that person," Dinesh Karthik wondered.