India and Kolkata Knight Riders fast bowler Prasidh Krishna has tested positive for Covid-19. Krishna becomes the fourth player from the Knight Riders camp to have tested positive after Varun Chakravarthy, Sandeep Warrier and Tim Seifert.
It is understood that Krishna had cleared all the tests before breaking out of the IPL bubble in Ahmedabad, where the Knight Riders were playing in the second leg, before returning to Bengaluru. It was in Bengaluru where Krishna tested positive, but it is believed to be a mild case.
On Friday the BCCI had named Krishna among the four standbys for the World Test Championship final and the Test series in England.
Krishna, 25, made his India debut earlier this year in the ODI series against England in Pune and picked six wickets in three matches.
Chakravarthy and Warrier were the first two players to test positive for Covid-19 not just from the Knight Riders camp but in the 2021 IPL, which was postponed indefinitely. It later emerged that Wriddhiman Saha of the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Amit Mishra of the Delhi Capitals had also tested positive, followed by Mike Hussey, the batting coach of the Chennai Super Kings.
On Saturday, NZC announced that Seifert had also tested positive and he would stay back in India before flying back to New Zealand. The rest of the New Zealand players have flown back home from the IPL, even though one group, comprising their Test players, flew to the Maldives before they can travel to the UK to participate in the England Test series followed by the World Test Championship final against India.
Krishna played seven games for the Knight Riders in the 2021 IPL and bowled 26.3 overs for eight wickets with an economy rate of 9.16.
Krishna will hope that he can recover in time before the India squad is expected to fly for the UK on June 2, as the squad members will also be expected to join a bubble before their departure. Krishna, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Avesh Khan and Arzan Nagwaswalla were among the four standby players named by the selectors as part of the enlarged squad that will remain in the UK from June to September.
More to follow…
Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo
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