India Under-19 skipper Yash Dhull, his deputy Sheikh Rasheed and four of their teammates have tested positive for Covid-19, forcing them out of the Group B World Cup game against Ireland on Wednesday.
Apart from Dhull and Rasheed, batter Aaradhya Yadav, Vasu Vats, Manav Parakh, and Siddharth Yadav were also found infected with the virus, because of which India barely managed to field an XI against Ireland.
"Three Indian players had tested positive yesterday and were already isolated. In the morning before the match, our captain and vice captain also tested positive in Rapid Antigen Test which is not conclusive," a BCCI official told PTI.
"So they, as precautionary measure, were pulled out. The players included skipper Yash Dhull and his deputy Shaikh Rasheed. We only had 11 available players and six isolated," the official added.
While skipper Dhull and Rasheed featured in the opening game against South Africa, Aardhya was not part of that game.
Nishant Sindhu led the team in the absence of Dhull.
Meanwhile, Ireland skipper Tim Tector won the toss and opted to bowl against India.
India won their first match against South Africa by 45 runs.
Teams:
India U-19: Nishant Sindhu (C) Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harnoor Singh, Raj Bawa, Kaushal Tambe, Dinesh Bana, Garv Sangwan, Vicky Ostwal, Aneeshwar Gautam, Rajvardhan Hangargekar and Ravi Kumar.
Ireland U19: Tim Tector (C), Liam Doherty, David Vincent, Jack Dickson, Joshua Cox, Philippus le Roux, Scott MacBeth, Nathan McGuire, Matthew Humphreys, Jamie Forbes and Muzamil Sherzad.
