South Africa opening batter Sarel Erwee and all-rounder Wiaan Mulder have been ruled out of the ongoing second Test against Bangladesh, here at Gqeberha, after contracting COVID-19.
Khaya Zondo has been named as Erwee's replacement, making his Test debut for the Proteas. Glenton Stuurman will replace Mulder in the playing XI. According to a statement from Cricket South Africa, both players felt unwell and returned positive Tests in the morning.
CSA have now invoked the COVID-19 substitution protocol, agreed with the Bangladesh Cricket Board prior to the start of the tour.
"This is an unfortunate situation, but not unexpected after the decision was made to have this tour under the Managed Event Environment (MEE) protocol, rather than the strict Bio-safe Environment (BSE) Protocol as was previously the case," a statement from CSA Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shuaib Manjra read.
"This is in line with the country's policy in revoking the Disaster Management Act with reference to the pandemic, as well the huge mental strain that a bubble environment induces. The two players are currently in quarantine at the team hotel and are under the care of the team's medical staff," stated further.
Erwee scored 24 and 41 respectively in the two innings that he batted in Port Elizabeth. Mulder also made significant all-round contributions, scoring 33 and 6 respectively in two innings and returning figures of 3/25 in the first innings.
At the end of Day 3, South Africa reduced Bangladesh to 27/3, with the visitors still needing 386 runs for a win.
( With inputs from ANI )
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