The Indian cricket team, it is being reported, is not too keen to travel to Brisbane after the third Test match against Australia due to the quarantine restrictions that will be imposed on them yet again.
The government of Queensland will put both teams in 14-day isolation upon arrival in Brisbane for the fourth Test at the Gabba, which starts from January 15.
The players were confined to their hotel rooms for the same duration when they arrived in Sydney from the IPL 2020 in UAE hence, don’t want to repeat that experience even though the BCCI hasn’t made any official request to Cricket Australia regarding the same.
“If you look at it, we were quarantining for 14 days in Dubai before landing in Sydney and doing so for another 14 days. That means we were in a hard bubble for nearly a month before coming out. What we don’t want now is to quarantine again at the end of the tour,” a source in the Indian team told Cricbuzz.
“We aren’t keen on going to Brisbane if it means being stuck in the hotel again, except for going to the ground. Instead we don’t mind being in some other city, playing both Test matches there to complete the series and returning home,” he added.
The Sydney Cricket Ground will be kept on standby for the final Test of the four-match series if the Indian team officials refuses to travel to Brisbane.
The visiting team is already in a deep crisis after five of its players were found to have breached the bio-bubble protocols on Saturday. The players in question are vice-captain Rohit Sharma, openers Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw, fast bowler Navdeep Saini and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
“If we’re going to put on an additional Test after [the third Test] because of what’s happened with the breaches that’s up to the Queensland government.
“That bubble is to protect the players and community. And here in NSW we can host the Test. Now if those breaches have impacted the conditions that the Queensland government have applied for the Indian cricket team or both cricket teams, that’s something for the Queensland government to make a decision about,” Acting NSW Premier John Barilaro said on Sunday.
The series stands level at 1-1 after India bounced back from the Adelaide defeat to beat Australia by 8 wickets in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne last week.
