India’s head coach Ravi Shastri has negated talk of his book release (Star Gazing: The Players in My Life) in London on September 1 playing a role in him testing Covid-19 positive which was followed by the cancellation of the Manchester Test. “The whole country [United Kingdom] is open. Anything could have happened from Test One,” Shastri told Sunday mid-day from London on Saturday. 

Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun, fielding coach R Sridhar and physiotherapist Dr Nitin Patel were placed in isolation from Day Four of the fourth Test at The Oval, where India won by 157 runs. All hell broke loose when the news of assistant physio Yogesh Parmar testing positive came through on the eve of the Manchester Test. “Outbreak of Covid-19 in the Indian team contingent forced the decision of calling off the Old Trafford Test Match,” said the BCCI in a press release on Friday.