Sri Lanka vs India: Player tests positive for COVID-19 in alternate bio-bubble

A Sri Lankan player in one of its two bio-bubbles for the limited-overs series against India has tested positive for COVID-19.

Published : Jul 10, 2021 14:00 IST

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Two members of the Sri Lankan support staff are already infected with COVID-19. - GETTY IMAGES

A Sri Lankan player in one of its two bio-bubbles has tested positive for COVID-19 as the virus outbreak continues to rock the home team ahead of its limited-overs series against India.

The group of players is training separately even as the virus outbreak forced a postponement of the series by four days after the home team's batting coach Grant Flower and data analyst G. T. Niroshan contracted the infection.

Newswire.lk  quoted Sri Lankan sources as saying that batsman Sandun Weerakkodi tested positive for COVID-19.

According to the report in the website, Weerakkodi was with the 15 senior cricketers who were training in Colombo while staying at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.

RELATED - SL vs IND ODI series rescheduled after COVID-19 scare

The report further stated that Weerakkodi, along with Bhanuka Rajapaksa and several other cricketers, were sent to Dambulla on Friday night to play practice matches ahead of the India series. The squad staying at Cinnamon Grand hotel also includes Asela Guneratne, Angelo Perera, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and all of them will now have to undergo quarantine.

There is another group of 26 cricketers putting up in a separate bubble in Dambulla. SLC said none of them were infected.

The Indian cricket team's six-match limited-overs series against Sri Lanka was on Friday rescheduled owing to a COVID-19 outbreak in the home team camp, with the first ODI now starting on July 17 instead of July 13.

Flower and Niroshan - part of Sri Lanka's support staff - have tested positive for the dreaded virus on return from the United Kingdom, which has forced Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) to extend the hard quarantine period from the stipulated three days.

Weerakoddy wasn't a part of the team that returned to Sri Lanka from England. That team is still in isolation post Flower and Niroshan's positive cases.

The latest positive case came from a separate bubble of 13 players.