The Indian U-19 team won both the opening matches against South Africa and Ireland and merged into the quarterfinals of the ongoing ICC U-19 World Cup. The team will now face Uganda in their final group B game on Saturday with a depleted squad.
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India played their second innings against Ireland with a depleted team as 6 players tested positive for Covid-19. Yet, they emerged a huge victory by a margin of 174 runs. The situation is worsening presently as the cases are worsening due to a huge outbreak in the host country.
Who are the unavailable players of the Indian U-19 team in ICC U-19 World Cup?
Captain Yash Dhull, Vice-Captain Shaik Rasheed, Siddharth Yadav, and Aaradhya Yadav tested positive. Manav Parakh and Vasu Vats showed some symptoms of Covid-19.
BCCI will send 5 reserve cricketers to the West Indies as many members from the squad tested positive on Wednesday. The obligatory quarantine period for positive cricketers is 10 days. It implies that India will play with the same squad against Uganda as South Africa as they do not have any substitute fielder or cricketer.
ICC's head of integrity Alex Marshall said prior to the tournament that "merely registering a positive PCR test result within a team will not result in the automatic postponement or cancellation of fixtures." If the team has 11 fit players, India will have to play the scheduled fixtures.
But if they have less than 11 cricketers in the squad, then the competition's Event Technical Committee will postpone India's matches or change the venue. This rule is applicable for every team that may fall into such a disastrous situation.
BCCI announced that Abishek Porel, Uday Shahran, Risith Reddy, Ansh Gosai and P.S. Singh Rathore will travel to West Indies as backup options.