A few days before the start of the third Test, reports have surfaced that Team India has disagreed to travel Brisbane if they had to go a strict quarantine. But Cricket Australia (CA) has been positive that the visitors are ready to tour the fourth venue of the last Test match.
According to Cricbuzz, a source informed that the Indian squad was ‘not keen’ on making the flight if they would be restricted to their rooms.
Cricket Australia seek clarification:
To clarify the reports going around, CA had a talk with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday. According to which, the hosts had reassured that the touring team’s board they would not be living under stricter restrictions in Brisbane than they have been in Sydney.
In Sydney and Brisbane, they will be only allowed to leave their rooms to see one another but not their hotels for anything other than training and playing at the respective grounds.
In the first two Test matches, players of both the team were allowed to move out of their hotel to travel. But after the outbreak of the new coronavirus strain in Sydney, Cricket Australia has restricted the moment of players.
The stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane had also said that they don’t want to focus on the talks going outside and any decision would be left to officials, not players.
“We as players, we are just focusing on this Test match. The Indian team management will take the decisions. For us as players, it’s all about giving our best on the field. The Test match is starting tomorrow (Thursday) so we are just focusing on that and we want to do well.” Rahane said.
Currently, India and Australia are playing the third Test match. Day one ended up with Australia putting 166 on board at the loss of two wickets. Had rain not interrupted, they would have easily put up 300 runs on board.