Rohit Sharma not ruled out of 5th Test against England: Rahul Dravid

India captain Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the rescheduled fifth Test against England, according to a report on Wednesday (June 29).

Last week, Rohit tested positive for COVID-19, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) added Mayank Agarwal to the Test squad as a cover for Rohit.

“Team India captain Mr Rohit Sharma has tested positive for COVID-19 following a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) conducted on Saturday. He is currently in isolation at the team hotel and is under the care of the BCCI Medical Team. An RT-PCR test will be conducted on Sunday to ascertain his CT value,” the BCCI had said on Saturday (June 25).

Now, reports said opening batsman Rohit is ruled out and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will lead the side.

“Rohit Sharma ruled out of 5th Test against England after testing positive for COVID-19 for second time, Jasprit Bumrah to lead,” tweeted news agency PTI.

“Rohit is out of this Test match, starting July 1, as his RT-PCR test has come positive again. He is still in isolation. Jasprit Bumrah, who is one of the vice-captains in absence of KL Rahul, will lead the team,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

However, the BCCI is yet to make any official announcement.

Dravid denies report

Addressing the media on Wednesday night, Indian coach Rahul Dravid said Rohit is still not ruled out of the Test.

“He’s being monitored by our medical team. He has not yet been ruled out,” Dravid said.

“He needs to get the negative tests to be available. So we’ll keep monitoring that, as we still got those 36 hours or so to go. We’ll have a test later tonight as well and maybe one tomorrow morning as well. And then we’ll see obviously, he’ll have to come out of that and it’s really up to the medical team and the sports science team to decide on that,” he added.

On asked about stand-in captain if Rohit is unavailable, Dravid said it is up to the selectors to decide. Original vice-captain KL Rahul is also not available due to an injury.

The rescheduled India-Test fifth Test will be played in Birmingham from July 1. India leads the series 2-1.

India’s Test squad: Jasprit Bumrah (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Mayank Agarwal.