Justin Langer has confirmed that the Australian team will be continuing with the handshakes, unlike Joe Root’s England team.
Langer poked some fun saying that there are enough hand sanitizers in the Australian players’ kits and they need not worry about anything. He told cricket.com.au, “We'll keep shaking hands. I reckon there's plenty of hand sanitizer in the Australian kits. I'm sure we'll just keep shaking hands and move on from that.”
The Australian team has to play 3 ODIs in New Zealand and then 3 T20Is at home against the same side before the players travel to India to play in the IPL. Langer is keen on keeping the players sharp and fit and abandoning handshakes isn’t on his list.
“We know we've still got six more games to play and then they've got to go again. We've probably learned the lessons from that in the past as well when the guys are playing all three forms, and playing IPL, how we keep them really sharp,” Langer said.
“We know how brilliant our cricketers are but even the best of the best, staying 100 percent sharp all the time, is really hard to do. They're mentally tough guys but it's a real challenge for us," he added.
Joe Root had revealed that the England cricket team will not be shaking hands during their tour to Sri Lanka and will go with fist bumps to avoid getting affected by the Coronavirus germs.
He said, “We have been given some really sound and sensible advice from our medical team to help prevent spreading germs and bacteria. We are not shaking hands with each other - using instead the well-established fist bump - and we are washing hands regularly and wiping down surfaces using the antibacterial wipes and gels we've been given in our immunity packs.”
(With inputs from ANI)
