Dinesh Karthik has revealed that India 's players "got the jitters" after their assistant physiotherapist, Yogesh Parmar, tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday.
Parmar became the fourth member of India's travelling party to test positive, after head coach Ravi Shastri, bowling coach Bharat Arun and fielding coach R Sridhar all tested positive during the fourth Test at The Oval.
As a result of Parmar's positive test, the India players underwent a fresh round of testing on Thursday, with the entire squad coming back negative.
However, due to concerns over Covid within the Indian camp, their final Test against England at Old Trafford was called off.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Karthik said: "I spoke to a few of the guys. The general feeling is that, after the fourth Test, the players [said] 'This is tiring'.
"Almost all the games have gone down to the wire, they’re tired, and they were down to one physio, so they’ve done a lot of work with that man - and now he tests positive.
"Now that is the problem. If it was somebody else they wouldn’t be this afraid. But when this person got it, the physio, that’s why they got the jitters.
"You also have to understand as soon as this finishes they have the IPL, soon after that the [T20] World Cup, and soon after that the New Zealand series.
"We are literally talking about one week turnarounds. How many bubbles can they do? They assembled in India on May 16th, which is almost four months ago. That's a lot of time."
Former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta told BBC Test Match Special: "From a player's perspective, they’re all in isolation. They’ve locked themselves up.
"Most of them are here with their families. A lot of them are here with their kids, so what happens if the parents test positive?
"The physio, Yogesh Parmar, is double vaccinated but he’s tested positive. Those with their kids over are petrified with what’s happening."
