KKR's Chakravarthy, Warrier test positive for Covid, IPL tie deferred: BCCI

Ahmedabad: Monday's Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), scheduled to be played here, has been postponed after two players from the KKR camp tested positive for Covid-19, the Indian cricket board said.

"Varun Chakaravarthy and Sandeep Warrier were found to be positive in the third round of testing in the last four days. All other team members have tested negative for COVID-19," said the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement.

Although the BCCI said "IPL reschedules KKR-RCB match slated for May 3" in the headline of its statement, inside the statement there was no word when and where the rescheduled match would be played.

Both players have isolated themselves from the rest of the squad. The venue -- the Narendra Modi Stadium -- is set to host two more group stage matches on Thursday and Saturday before hosting the playoffs and final from May 25 to 30 respectively.

"The medical team is in continuous touch with the duo and are monitoring their health. Meanwhile, the Kolkata Knight Riders have now moved towards a daily testing routine to identify any other possible cases and treat them at the earliest," said the BCCI.

The BCCI said that the medical team is also "determining the close and casual contacts of the two positive cases during the 48 hours prior to collection of the sample that returned the positive test results".

This is the first instance of players testing positive within the IPL bio-bubble since the 2021 season began.