India's Krunal Pandya's 8 close contacts return negative in the RT-PCR test, set to play in the remaining games: Reports

After testing positive for Covid-19, India's Krunal Pandya will now miss the next couple of games on the Sri Lanka tour. The TOI recently reported that all eight players who were in close contact with Krunal Pandya have returned negative results in RT-PCR tests and will take part in the remaining two T20I games in the coming days.

#BREAKINGNEWS All 8 Indian contingent members who were identified as close contacts of @krunalpandya24 have tested negative for #Covid_19 as per sources tracking developments in #COLOMBO#INDvSL @BCCI

— Kushan Sarkar (@kushansarkar) July 27, 2021

Krunal Pandya will have to undergo mandatory isolation and then return a negative result to board a flight to India. An anonymous source informed PTI:

"Krunal Pandya is symptomatic with cough and throat pain. He is obviously out of the series and will not be able to return with the rest of the squad members. However, the good news is that all his eight close contacts who were identified by the BCCI medical officer Dr. Abhijit Salvi have tested negative."

India have a 20-men squad in Sri Lanka, so the boards are confident that the team can field 11 players even if any other positive cases surface.

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Revised Schedule of the series and squads available for India and Sri Lanka

The T20I series will resume tomorrow with the second T20I against both nations. The third and final match of the tour will take place on the following day(Thursday). India currently lead the series by a 1-0 margin.

In the absence of all-rounder Krunal Pandya, India might use either Krishnappa Gowtham or Nitish Rana in that slot.

India Squad: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan (c), Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (w), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Manish Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav, Krishnappa Gowtham, Nitish Rana, Navdeep Saini, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rahul Chahar, Devdutt Padikkal, Chetan Sakariya.

Sri Lanka Squad: Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka(w), Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Ashen Bandara, Dasun Shanaka(c), Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Isuru Udana, Dushmantha Chameera, Akila Dananjaya, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Ishan Jayaratne , Binura Fernando, Ramesh Mendis, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Asitha Fernando, Lakshan Sandakan, Praveen Jayawickrama, Dhananjaya Lakshan, Pathum Nissanka, Lahiru Udara, Shiran Fernando

🔴 The second T20I between Sri Lanka and India originally scheduled to be played on July 27 has been pushed forward by a day and will now take place on Wednesday, July 28.READ 👉 https://t.co/XjFMQwhTpM#SLvIND pic.twitter.com/UJcgmNCUrT

— Sri Lanka Cricket 🇱🇰 (@OfficialSLC) July 27, 2021