Team India are slated to play three Tests and ODIs each on the South Africa tour.
As per the report, members of the South Africa-bound squad have been asked to check into a five-star hotel near the Mumbai International Airport by Sunday (December 12) evening to fulfill the biosecurity protocols. The touring party will fly to Johannesburg on Wednesday (December 15) by charter flight.
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Before entering the bio-bubble, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Shardul Thakur took part in a mini-camp at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai under India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey.
Team India are slated to play three Tests and ODIs each on the South Africa tour from December 26 to January 23. However, members of the Test squad will depart for the Rainbow Nation at this point.
Meanwhile, a few members of the India ‘A’ squad -- Hanuma Vihari, Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswallah, and Vivek Ramakrishna (trainer), who were involved in the unofficial Tests against South Africa ‘A’ in Bloemfontein, have stayed back and will join the senior side.
On the other hand, the rest of the India ‘A’ squad avoided landing in Mumbai and flew directly to Ahmedabad from Bloemfontein to evade stern quarantine protocols in Maharashtra.
A new variant of COVID-19, called Omicron, has been identified in South Africa and the World Health Organization (WHO) has already declared it to be "of concern."
Initially, there were doubts over the senior team’s tour but the incident-free A tour encouraged the BCCI and the members for travelling to the country.
Earlier, South Africa's foreign ministry had also promised that a "full bio-secure environment" will be formulated for the Indian cricket team when it arrives in the country for the much-awaited bilateral series.
(With Cricbuzz inputs)