The Indian cricket team was all set to lock its horns with England in the 5th Test match of the ongoing series in Manchester, scheduled to begin today, however, the dark clouds of COVID-19 loomed over resulting in the cancelation of the last Test match.
Notably, Indian head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive for noble Coronavirus which was followed by another staff member of the Indian camp on Thursday. Ever since then, there was uncertainty regarding the fifth Test match of the series.
On Thursday, all the Indian cricketers returned negative in their RT-PCR tests and it was expected that the fifth Test match will be held as planned. The Indian side was leading the ongoing five-match series by 2-1 after a stunning victory at The Oval where the Virat-led side won the game by 157 runs.
But ahead of the match, the ECB announced that the fifth Test match has been canceled as India was “unable to field a team” due to Covid cases in their team’s camp.
“Following ongoing conversations with the BCCI, the ECB can confirm that the fifth LV= Insurance Test between England and India Men due to start today at Emirates Old Trafford, will be cancelled,”
“Due to fears of a further increase in the number of COVID cases inside the camp, India are regrettably unable to field a team,” the statement further read
The BCCI, on the other hand, has offered ECB to reschedule the 5th Test, now both the teams will work together to decide the fortune of the match.
Meanwhile, fans were left disappointed with the cancelation/postponement of the 5th Test match and soon they flooded social media with their reactions to it. There were many who came up with hilarious memes while reacting to the news.
Here, check out the reactions of Twitterati on this:
#ManchesterTest have been postponed/cancelled and me who was planning not to miss even a single ball.
My current situation ?? pic.twitter.com/mFaqIjdW8e
— Loveneesh Prakash (@loveneeshprakas) September 10, 2021
#ENGvIND #ManchesterTest #5thTest postponed or cancel or Forfiet, don’t know, So India win the series..?
Fan’s confused what happened right now ? pic.twitter.com/GLxteFL7Ls— Ashutosh Srivastava ?? (@kingashu_786) September 10, 2021
Ashwin Getting #IndvEng Series
Ready For Getting#5thTest Postponed pic.twitter.com/0tKKaI021z— Babu Bhaiya (@Shahrcasm) September 10, 2021
ECB Confirms 5th Test is Postponed For 2 Days #ENGVIND
Meanwhile Cricket Fans : pic.twitter.com/SdVkNhF80C— Prathamesh (@Memesrestic) September 10, 2021
ECB to BCCI#5thTest #INDvsENG #cancelled pic.twitter.com/C47TMrofjz
— Tulasidas Khan (@ysunnyyadav) September 10, 2021
Everyone Blaming Ravi Shastri for the cancellation of #ManchesterTest
Meanwhile China:#5thTest #INDvsENG #ENGvsIND pic.twitter.com/XQW15Cqxqn— ?
(@unlike_moon) September 10, 2021
The saddest person right now is #jarvo69 who won’t get chance to run into stadium this match. #BCCI #5thTest pic.twitter.com/E4g0JSaugw
— IamTheDanger ➐ (@JaiswalVarrnit) September 10, 2021
Ashwin after 5th test gets cancelled #5thTest be like : pic.twitter.com/kXVx2Y7GSR
— Pranjul Sharma (@SharmaaJie) September 10, 2021