Uncertainty Looms Over Brisbane Test As Indian Team Refuse To Accept Strict Quarantine Protocols In Queensland

India v Australia: As per a report, the team management is not keen to accept further restrictions if the players are to be confined to their rooms in Brisbane.

Image: Twitter/ @RishabhPant17

The possibility of the fourth Test of the 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy appears unsure at the moment after members of the Indian cricket team have expressed their concerns about travelling to the city in view of the strict Covid protocols that have been put in place in the state of Queensland. As per a report in Cricbuzz, the team management is not keen to accept further restrictions on the mentally-exhausted players and that if the players are to be confined to their rooms, the team will not travel. “If you look at it, we were quarantined 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. It is also being speculated that Sydney might get to host the fourth Test also if the Queensland government does not exempt the Indian team from their strict quarantine protocols."All we're saying is the boys have been in various states of lockdowns and bubbles for nearly six months now. And it's not been easy for anyone. If you look at it, we are one of only two teams who have had zero issues while being on a tour during this pandemic. After all this time, what we don't want is to be sent into another hard bubble, which seems will be the case in Brisbane," the source further told the website. “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,” the source added. “We understand the complexity of what’s happening currently. Cricket Australia and we have cooperated at every step with regards to following the protocols within the bubble. But we were expecting to be treated in the same vein as ‘normal Australians’ in terms of restrictions once we completed that initial quarantine in Sydney.” News agency The Australian has reported that the Australian players have already been informed that they will be restricted to their room when not playing or training, but the Indian contingent is yet to receive any such update. It also reports that the development has left members of the Australian team ‘upset’.

Five Indian Players Placed In Isolation As BCCI, CA Probe Breach Of Covid Protocols

This comes at the time when five Indian cricketers have been alleged to breach the bio-secure bubble in Melbourne. BCCI is investigating a video that shows five Indian cricketers Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Navdeep Saini, and Prithvi Shaw breaching Cricket Australia's bio-security protocols. The five players are shown sitting indoors in Secret Kitchen Noodles & BBQ restaurant in Melbourne when the permission is only to eat outdoors. Although players are allowed to eat outside, they should be seated outdoors unlike the Indian cricketers. The breach at the restaurant assumes significance especially after a recent rise of Covid-19 cases in Victoria, where Melbourne is located, and around Sydney in New South Wales where the third Test will be played from January 7.