Pace bowler Pooja Vastrakar leaves for England; to be available for Barbados game

Birmingham, July 31

India women's cricket team right-arm pace bowler Pooja Vastrakar will likely be available for the side's final group game against Barbados in the Commonwealth Games on August 3 after the 22-year-old is believed to have returned a negative test for Covid-19.

Ahead of the India team's departure for the Commonwealth Games, Vastrakar had tested positive for the virus in Bengaluru along with Sabbhineni Meghana and did not accompany the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side.

While Meghana joined the T20 squad in Birmingham ahead of their first group match against Australia on July 29, Vastrakar had to wait a couple of days longer for the test to return negative.

Vastrakar posted images on social media at the airport with her luggage on Sunday morning and wrote "finally". In another image, she is seen travelling business class to England.

After narrowly losing their opening Group A match against gold-medal favourites Australia, India will seek to better their performance when they take on arch-rivals Pakistan at Edgbaston later on Sunday.

A win for either side will keep their hope alive of making the medal round, while defeat would put either of the side on the brink of an early exit from the quadrennial event.