No new constructive checks for England provides increase to Sri Lanka collection prospects

Moeen Ali returns to crew lodge after aborted try and relocate him to Galle after Covid end result

England’s tour of Sri Lanka will proceed – for now, at the very least – after the most recent spherical of Covid-19 checks confirmed no new constructive outcomes.

The squad will maintain their first coaching session of the tour in Hambantota on Wednesday afternoon, the place Moeen Ali has now returned to remain in separate lodging, after an aborted plan to relocate him to Galle following his constructive Covid take a look at.

There had been nervousness over the way forward for the tour after Ali’s take a look at end result upon arrival in Sri Lanka. Chris Woakes, who travelled from Birmingham to Heathrow airport in the identical automobile as Moeen, was additionally put in quarantine as he was thought-about a detailed contact and there have been issues that the virus might have unfold by way of extra of the tour occasion.

Information that the remainder of the squad – together with Woakes – examined damaging after a brand new spherical of testing on Tuesday shall be a big aid each to the England camp and Sri Lankan authorities nervous over the prevalence of the virus within the UK.

Whereas it could be fallacious to suppose the risk to the tour has handed utterly – your entire tour occasion shall be examined once more on Thursday within the understanding that the virus typically takes a number of days to present itself – the information revives the prospect of the collection getting underway as scheduled in Galle on January 14.

Not all has gone easily, nevertheless. Though Ali was on Tuesday transferred to a lodge in Galle booked for simply such an eventuality, upon arrival it was concluded by the ECB’s chief medical officer, Nick Peirce, that constructing work rendered it unsuitable.