IPL 2021: After Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada also out of Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals

Delhi Capitals (DC) duo of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje will be unavailable for their second game in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 on Thursday.

Delhi are set to take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Last season's runners up are coming off a superb win in their opening IPL 2021 encounter, which was against Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Meanwhile, RR lost their first game to Punjab Kings (PBKS) by four runs last week.

Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that South African fast bowler Nortje had tested positive for COVID-19. According to the report, after testing negative Nortje began his mandatory seven-day quarantine. As per the IPL SOP, all players have to be tested multiple times to be sure the RT-PCR outcome was not a false one. While on quarantine, when Nortje took the COVID-19 test again, he returned with a positive result this time. However, the Delhi franchise has not officially broken the news.

Rabada and Nortje travelled together from South Africa to Mumbai on April 6. The two were supposed to be available for Delhi from the second game after finishing their seven-day quarantine and a negative RT-PCR test result. "At this point, we only know that Anrich Nortje's results are awaited as he is in quarantine. We can only tell you further after we get the test results," a DC source was quoted by PTI on Wednesday.

The PTI report has further stated that Delhi are delaying an official announcement as there has been an earlier instance of a false positive. It happened in the case of Kolkata Knight Riders' batsman Nitish Rana, who was the first player to test positive even before the IPL 2021 went underway. Rana had first tested positive after joining the KKR camp but his next RT-PCR result turned out to be negative.

Nortje is the fifth player, who is a part of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL), to test positive for COVID-19. The other four players – Nitish Rana (Kolkata Knight Riders), Axar Patel (DC), Devdutt Padikkal (Royal Challengers Bangalore), and his teammate Daniel Sams – returned with a positive test before the start of the 14th edition of the tournament.