Indian cricket team to undergo 3-day quarantine before flying to South Africa

Indian cricket team to undergo 3-day quarantine before flying to South Africa

FILE PIC

The Indian cricket team will undergo a three-day quarantine in Mumbai before flying to Johannesburg, South Africa on Wednesday by a chartered flight. Members of the South Africa-bound squad have been asked to check into a five-star hotel near the Mumbai International Airport to fulfil the biosecurity protocols. India will play three Tests and three ODIs but at this point, only the members of the Test squad will fly to the Rainbow Nation. 

Meanwhile, a few members of the India A squad — Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswallam, Hanuma Vihari, and Vivek Ramakrishna (trainer), who were involved in a three-game series against South Africa A, have stayed back and will join the senior side after they reach there. The rest of the India A squad avoided landing in Mumbai and flew directly to Ahmedabad from Bloemfontein to avoid strict quarantine protocols in Maharashtra. Notably, there were concerns around senior teams’ travel to South Africa, which is reeling under Omicron, a new and deadlier variant of COVID-19. The first of the three Tests starts in Centurion on December 26. Wanderers in Johannesburg and Newlands in Cape Town will host the other two Tests.