Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer Return To Training After Recovering From COVID-19 Ahead Of 2nd ODI vs West Indies

In a welcome news for Team India, cricketers Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer returned to training after recovering from COVID-19.

The duo had missed India’s first ODI against the West Indies after testing positive for coronavirus on arrival in Ahmedabad. “@SDhawan25 & @ShreyasIyer15 have recovered from COVID-19 and trained with the #TeamIndia squad ahead of the 2nd ODI,” BCCI tweeted on Wednesday ahead of the 2nd ODI against West Indies.

Both Dhawan and Iyer were seen training with the rest of the squad. The due were part of India’s XI in the three ODIs against South Africa and it will be interesting to see if they get their spots back in the side for the second match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. India are spoilt for choices in this encounter as opener KL Rahul, who too missed the series opener due to personal reasons, is available for selection.

Both Dhawan and Iyer, however maintained that they will gradually take things forward instead of hustling into hard training.

“It feels really good to be able to come out of my room after 7-8 days. It’s a great feeling to train with the team again. We were mindful not to exert too much on day 1 of practice,” said Shikhar Dhawan.

“We were asked to go for three rounds. Initially, it was really difficult but after that the lungs opened up. I started with small drills and then asked our throw down specialists to chuck a few balls and then initially increased the pace while batting,” Iyer said.

The Indian team management will have their task cut out in finalizing the XI as the ones who played in place of Dhawan and Rahul – Ishan Kishan and debutant Deepak Hooda – did not do anything wrong in the opportunity that they got in the previous ODI. Kishan put together a solid partnership with Rohit Sharma while Hooda remained unbeaten to steer India home along with Suryakumar Yadav.