SA v Ban: Two South African players test positive for COVID-19

Opener Sarel Erwee and all-rounder Wiaan Mulder have tested positive for COVID-19, confirmed by South Africa, and will miss the rest of the second Test against Bangladesh, which is currently taking place in Port Elizabeth.

Khaya Zondo, who is making his Test debut for the Proteas, has been picked as Erwee’s replacement. Mulder will be replaced in the starting lineup by Glenton Stuurman. Both players felt ill and returned positive Tests in the morning, according to a statement from Cricket South Africa.

The CSA has now implemented the COVID-19 substitution policy, which was agreed upon prior to the start of the tour with the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

“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,” said CSA Chief Medical Officer Dr Shuaib Manjra in a statement. This is consistent with the country’s goal of revoking the Disaster Management Act in light of the epidemic, as well as the huge mental strain that living in a bubble environment induces.”

“The two players are being quarantined at the team hotel and are being cared for by the medical professionals of the team.”

At the two innings that Erwee batted in Port Elizabeth, he scored 24 and 41 runs, respectively. Mulder made strong all-round contributions as well, scoring 33 and 6 runs in two innings and returning numbers of 3/25 in the first.

South Africa reduced Bangladesh to 27/3 at the close of Day 3, with the visitors still needing 386 runs to win.