Achievement:
The BCCI medical team had isolated Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar and physiotherapist Nitin Patel as a precaution after the head coach’s lateral flow test came positive on Saturday evening.
“Of course, we are missing them in a big way. Ravi bhai (Ravi Shastri), B Arun and R Sridar, they have been an extremely important part of this set-up and they have done very well in the last five-six years and The team played a major role in doing well,” Rathor said after the end of the day’s play.
India were in a commanding position after scoring 466 in the second essay, thanks to a memorable century by Rohit Sharma and equally important innings by Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur and Rishabh Pant.
“But it’s the same. That’s the fact that they’re not here. So this morning was, I think, a little distracting. We had a word, we talked[and]decided we needed to focus what is in hand CricketRathore said.
“We are here for this series, it is an extremely important series that we are playing and today (Sunday) when we came in the morning, it was an extremely important day for us, to focus on cricket. So I Looks like the boys did. Very well not to be distracted.
“There was a possibility that we might deviate from the situation that happened last night, but a lot of credit goes to the boys, the way they handled themselves and the way we played as a team,” Rathore said.
The batting coach also revealed that Shastri felt some discomfort on Saturday after which the test was conducted.
“I didn’t know the exact time, but it was around 8 pm last night. Yesterday (Saturday) he was having some trouble, so the medical team decided to go for a Lateral-Pro test and it came back positive. That’s when We heard that he is positive and I think close contacts were identified and put in isolation, then we will wait for the medical team to see when they can join back,” he said.
.