The COVID-positive in IPL 2021

The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League, which started on April 9, ran smoothly for about a month before the outbreak of COVID-19 cases among the teams forced the BCCI to suspend the T20 league keeping in mind the ‘safety of the players, support staff and the other participants involved in organising the IPL’.

IPL 2021 was called off on Tuesday, May 4, after 21 matches were held, and it remains to be seen when the remaining 31 games will be held.

The suspension of IPL 2021 began with two positive cases in the Kolkata Knight Riders camp and, soon enough, the virus caught up with support staff and players in other teams as well.

A look at the teams affected by COVID-19:

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

The first instance of COVID-19 breaching the IPL bio-bubble took place when KKR’s Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier tested positive on May 3, forcing KKR’s match against Royal Challengers Bangalore to be postponed hours before its scheduled start in Ahmedabad.

There were reports that Chakravarthy was taken to a hospital for scans following which he tested positive.

KKR’s Nitish Rana was the first player in the IPL to test positive. The left-hander tested positive on March 22 — a day after his arrival at the team hotel in Mumbai. He spent 10 days in isolation in his hotel room before he was cleared to join the KKR’s bio-bubble following a negative test on April 1.

CHENNAI SUPER KINGS

Chennai Super Kings’ players were forced into hard quarantine after Bowling Coach Lakshmipathy Balaji and a bus cleaner tested positive for COVID-19.

Later, it was also reported that Batting Coach Michael Hussey had also contracted the virus.

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

SRH wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha tested positive on Tuesday. It was his positive result which forced the BCCI to indefinitely suspend the IPL as it became clear that the virus had breached the league’s bio-bubble.

DELHI CAPITALS

Veteran leg-spinner Amit Mishra tested positive.

Mishra was the second player from Delhi Capitals to get infected after all-rounder Axar Patel, who had tested positive on April 3. He had to spend 20 days at BCCI’s designated medical facility before he returned to join his team after recovering from the virus.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE

Young RCB opener Devdutt Padikkal tested positive on March 22 and was forced to quarantine at home.

The 20 year old joined the RCB camp on April 7 after returning two negative tests and was cleared to play in the IPL after missing the first game against Mumbai Indians.

RCB had another positive case as Australia’s left-arm pacer Daniel Sams also tested positive on April 7. He tested negative after arriving in Chennai on April 3 but tested positive a few days later.

Sams joined the RCB team’s bio-bubble after spending 10 days in quarantine.

MUMBAI INDIANS

Mumbai Indians scout and wicketkeeping consultant Kiran More also contracted the virus, a few days before the start of IPL 2021.

More was the first to contract the virus inside the IPL bio-bubble. He spent two weeks in medically supervised isolation and was cleared to join the Mumbai Indians squad after three negative RT-PCR tests.

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