India vs Eng 4th Test: Ravi Shastri COVID-19 positive test distracted team, says coach Vikram Rathour

India were in a commanding position after scoring 466 in the second essay, courtesy a memorable hundred by Rohit Sharma and equally important knocks by Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur and Rishabh Pant.

India batting coach Vikram Rathour on Sunday (September 5) said the team was naturally a bit distracted going into day four of the fourth Test after head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive for COVID-19. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) medical team had isolated Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar, and physiotherapist Nitin Patel as a precautionary measure after the head coach's lateral flow test returned positive on Saturday (September 4) evening. “Of course, we are missing them massively. Ravi Bhai (Ravi Shastri), B Arun and R Shridar, they have been extremely important part of this set up and they have done extremely well (in) the last five-six years and played a major role in the team doing well,” Rathour said after the end of day’s play. India were in a commanding position after scoring 466 in the second essay, courtesy a memorable hundred by Rohit Sharma and equally important knocks by Cheteshwar Pujara, Shardul Thakur and Rishabh Pant. “But this is what it is. That's the fact that they are not here. So, it was in the morning, I think, a bit of a distraction, we had a word, we spoke, (and) decided that we need to focus on what is in hand, which is cricket,” said Rathour.