IPL 2020: Rajasthan Royals players Steve Smith, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler return negative results for coronavirus
IPL 2020: Rajasthan Royals skipper Steve Smith and his Indian Premier League teammates Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer have returned negative results for the coronavirus.
In Short
- Steve Smith, Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler test negative for coronavirus
- RR skipper Smith is yet to get a concussion clearance
- Rajasthan Royals have their first game on September 22
With Australia’s limited-overs tour of England being concluded on Wednesday, 21 IPL-bound players of the two teams arrived at the UAE on Thursday evening. All of these players, who were flown in by chartered flight on September 17, have to undergo a 36-hour quarantine period.
Of these 21 players are Rajasthan Royals captain Steve Smith and his England counterparts Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler. The 3 Rajasthan Royals mainstays have returned negative results for the novel coronavirus after having taken the mandatory tests.
"Smith, Buttler and Archer underwent COVID-19 tests on Friday and results are negative. So they are available for selection with quarantine duration being reduced to 36 hours," an IPL source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
Rajasthan Royals will begin their IPL 2020 campaign as they take on Chennai Super Kings at the Sharjah Cricket ground on September 22.
Meanwhile, RR skipper Steve Smith had suffered a blow to his head ahead of the 3-match ODI series against England and hasn’t fully recovered yet. Smith’s absence could be dangerous for the Rajasthan-based franchise. Smith can, however, play the first RR fixture against CSK if he gets a go-ahead from the medical teams of the franchise Cricket Australia.
After Smith arrive to the UAE to join the RR camp, Rajasthan Royals posted a picture of him on their Twitter and turned into a meme appreciation for their captain. In the picture, Smith’s body temperature was being scanned using a digital thermometer. In the tweet posted by RR, Smith returned GOAT on the thermometer. The former Australia captain is often regarded as GOAT (Greatest of all time) since he has the best Test average since Don Bradman.