COVID scare in IPL 2021: Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings in familiar ground

COVID has once again managed to crawl its way into the Indian Premier League. As per reports a member of Chennai Super Kings' content team has tested positive for the virus and has been put under isolation. The side's CEO, Kasi Viswanathan, confirmed the development to Cricbuzz. 

Meanwhile, it seems fate has taken a U-turn from Delhi Capitals as they prepare for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which starts from April 9. The side first lost its captain and a key middle-order batsman in the form of Shreyas Iyer, who was ruled out from the tournament after dislocating his shoulders while performing the national duties. And now when we are just a week away from the cash-rich T20 league, Axar Patel, one of team's premier all-rounder, has tested positive for COVID-19.

The franchise on Saturday released a statement in this regard, which stated that the all-rounder had initially checked in at the team hotel in Mumbai on March 28 with a negative report. However, his report from the second COVID test returned positive, and Patel is currently under isolation and supervision of Delhi Capitals medical team. 

 UPDATE 

Delhi Capitals all-rounder #AxarPatel has tested positive for COVID-19. He had checked into the team hotel in Mumbai on Mar 28, 2021, with a negative report. His report from the second COVID test, came positive. pic.twitter.com/CjRKlfzvWR

— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) April 3, 2021

While DC are not the first team to have been rocked by the novel virus even before the first ball of the tournament has been bowled. Three-time winners Chennai Super Kings had found themselves in a similar situation in the last tournament in UAE, when Deepak Chahar and Ruturaj Gaekwad had tested positive for COVID. In addition to this a few members from CSK's social media team had also tested positive for the virus.

CSK did eventually manage to survive the virus scare and the season opener between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians went ahead as per schedule, but it certainly had a lasting impact in the side's campaign, as the heavyweights finished second-last and for the first time in the history of the tournament failed to make it to the playoffs.

COVID blows: CSK's additional quarantine 

Apart from the mandatory 14-day quarantine period, CSK were forced to remain isolated for an additional two weeks before they could enter the bio-bubble, making them the last team to begin their training. This was one of the reasons behind CSK's woeful performance, something which was acknowledged by the skipper MS Dhoni himself.  

"I haven't batted for a long time. 14-day quarantine doesn't help," Dhoni had said after a match against Rajasthan Royals, which saw the skipper arrive in the middle after the likes of Sam Curran and Kedhar Jadhav in a stiff 217-run chase.  

However, Dhoni's reference was to the additional quarantine, which resulted them in missing important training sessions.

Amidst all the COVID hullabaloo, Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh decided to skip the tournament completely due to personal reasons.

However, nothing as such has been announced yet for both the franchises, but COVID has proven to be a hindrance for teams, something which was evident in CSK's campaign last season.