KKR's Tim Seifert breaks down while narrating his Covid experience in India during IPL 2021

New Zealand and Kolkata Knight Riders wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert broke down while narrating his experience of staying back in India after testing positive for Covid-19 during IPL 2021 while the rest of the foreign players headed back home.

KKR’s Seifert was one of the last overseas cricketers to leave India after indefinite postponement of IPL 2021 due to a sudden rise in positive cases in its bio-bubble.

Now back in New Zealand and under strict quarantine, Seifert said his "heart sank straight away" when a team official told him of his positive test.

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"The world kind of stops a little bit." he told reporters in a video call from hotel quarantine in Auckland. "I just couldn’t really think what was next. And that was the scary part of it.

"You hear about the bad things, and I thought that was going to happen to me."

Seifert then was unable to control his emotions and needed a moment to compose himself before going on.

"The news (in India) is all about a lack of oxygen, you don’t know if you’re going to be in that situation," he said.

"It’s just the whole unknown of what COVID is, how you’re going to react to it."

Seifert experienced only mild symptoms but the stress had proved the biggest challenge for him. He was among four KKR cricketers to test positive for the virus. Varun Chakravarthy, Sandeep Warrier and Prasidh Krishna were the others.

Seifert, who is yet to make his IPL debut, said the experience had not turned him off returning to India for the Twenty20 World Cup in October, though the global tournament may be in doubt if the country is unable to overcome a devastating second wave of the coronavirus.

"To be honest, the whole time while I was over there, the bubble felt good ... felt safe," he said.

(With agency inputs)