Six members of Sunrisers Hyderabad, including Vijay Shankar, identified as close contacts; SRH vs DC game to go ahead on schedule
The match on Wednesday evening etween Sunrisers and Delhi Capitals in Dubai, however, is set to go ahead.
Both Natarajan and Vijay Shankar were, incidentally, part of the Sunrisers’ training session in Dubai on Tuesday. The entire contingent, including the close contacts, have since tested negative after undergoing RT-PCR tests at 5am local time.
ESPNcricinfo has learnt that most of the Sunrisers members, including Vijay Shankar and Periyaswamy, had travelled to the UAE from Mumbai on September 1. Natarajan had travelled separately, in a commercial flight from Bengaluru on September 9, and linked up with the squad subsequently.
All participants in the IPL had to quarantine for six days upon arriving in the UAE, and undergo testing every two days in the first week, and every fifth day from the second week.
According to the guidelines in place for the IPL, anyone testing positive for Covid-19 must isolate for a minimum of ten days. They can then rejoin the bubble after clearing two tests, on days nine and ten.
While the IPL’s standard operating protocols do not make it mandatory for players, and others, to be vaccinated, Natarajan had been vaccinated twice, based on the photographs he put out on his social-media handles recently.
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T Natarajan: ‘Didn’t expect to play the T20 World Cup – you can’t get in without match practice’
Saha’s case highlighted the vulnerability of the IPL bubbles, seeing that members of the public were seen moving around in the vicinity of the teams’ dressing rooms at one of the grounds where the Sunrisers had been training.
The added cause of concern could be that the IPL will be followed by the T20 World Cup, in the same part of the world, from October 17. In May this year, the IPL – played in India at the time – had to be postponed after a Covid-19 outbreak in multiple team biobubbles. That forced the second part of the tournament to be hosted in the UAE, where the entire 2020 edition of the tournament had also been played. The World Cup, too, was earlier scheduled to be played in India, but was shifted out to the UAE (and Oman) because of the Covid-19 situation in India.
As for Natarajan, it is yet another setback. He was on a comeback trail after undergoing surgery on his knee, which put him out of action after just two IPL games earlier this year. He had hurt his knee during India’s tour of Australia at the turn of the year, and subsequently missed games at home against England too.
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