‘Boys were distracted but did well to focus on cricket’: Vikram Rathour

TIL Desk Sports/ India batting coach Vikram Rathour on Sunday said the players were a bit distracted going into day four of the fourth Test after head coach Ravi Shastri tested positive for COVID-19, but did well  to focus with the bat and set England a huge target for victory.

The 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 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 fourth day’s play.

“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.