Amid the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) in UAE, the planning for India’s tour down under is also going on.
According to a PTI report, Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari and the support staff led by head coach Ravi Shastri are likely to have a six-day quarantine in Dubai during the business end of the IPL before flying off to Australia.
Bearing in mind the safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the BCCI is likely to send an outsized squad to Australia, comprising 23 to 25 playing members across formats.
The report further tells that the Indian board is trying to work out the logistics to smoothly transfer the squad from one bio-bubble in UAE to another in Australia, where they might have to serve two-week quarantine unless the rules are relaxed.
“The most feasible plan right now looks like entire team flying together from Dubai in one chartered flight. For that, the two Test specialists Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, along with our coaching staff of Ravi Shastri, Bharath Arun, Vikram Rathour and R Sridhar will arrive in Dubai, most probably at the end of this month,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
“In all likelihood, the non-IPL players and the coaching staff along with other support staff, would have to undergo a six-day quarantine with a separate bubble being created for them. They will also undergo tests on Days 1, 3 and 6. Once IPL is over, the squad will come together and fly out Down Under,” he added.
The plan is easier to manage logistically as most of the players who will be taking the flight to Australia are playing the IPL in the safe environment of UAE.
“Most of the playing members are in a secured bio environment. So it’s more feasible that we organise the bio-secure environment for the remaining contingent in Dubai itself for smooth operational purposes,” the source said.
According to the tentative schedule released by CA in May this year, India's tour of Australia will kick-start with a T20I affair on October 11 in Brisbane. The other two T20I games will be played on October 14 (Canberra) and October 17 (Adelaide).
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy will begin on December 3 at the Gabba. India are then scheduled to play a pink-ball Test from December 11 to 15 in Adelaide while the third and fourth Tests will be held in Melbourne (December 26-30) and Sydney (January 3-7) respectively.
The ODI series is slated to start on January 12 in Perth, followed by matches on January 15 (Melbourne) and January (Sydney) 17.
However, there is a possibility that dates and venues could change as per the COVID-19 situation in the country.
(With PTI inputs)
