The fifth and final Test between India and England, which was due to begin on Friday (September 10) in Manchester, was called off at the eleventh hour after a fresh COVID-19 case was reported in the visiting camp.
India’s assistant physio Yogesh Parmar contracted the virus on the eve of the game while senior physio Nitin Patel had returned positive during the fourth Test alongside head coach Ravi Shastri and two other support staff members.
Reflecting on the turn of events, ex-England skipper Nasser Hussain said that the Indian cricketers had “enjoyed a more relaxed bubble” in UK and that ultimately resulted in COVID-19 getting into the tourists' camp.
According to a report published in the Daily Mail, Indian coaches and players had reportedly attended a book launch at a London hotel outside their bubble before the fourth Test at The Oval.
"They have enjoyed a more relaxed bubble here in the UK and ultimately that is how Covid has got into the camp -- but it is too easy for us to preach to the India team to play the game on the back of a round of negative PCR tests and double vaccinations," Hussain wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
The former cricketer-turned-commentator also refrained from criticising the Indian cricketers for deciding not to play the fifth Test as life inside the bio-bubble is very tough.
"I don't blame the players (for not playing the fifth Test) because I experienced similar environments last summer. If someone had asked me to do a few extra days last September, I would have shown resistance, and I was just doing a few weeks here and there.
"Yes, these players are handsomely paid but that does not make the hotel isolation any easier. And so when India's physio and his assistant tested positive, India got fidgety. Physios are the closest of close contacts and by the end of a major series it is not just the fast bowlers being treated regularly.
"Those India players, who have spent as much time living life in a bubble as the England players this year, would have feared the consequences of testing positive themselves and remaining locked away again."
Hussain feels that the Indian players became jittery after the assistant physiotherapist tested positive for COVID-19.
"When something like this hits it feels like the final straw and you develop a get-me-out-of-here mentality. As for the theory that India have pulled out because they are 2-1 up? I just don't buy it. The theory that India pulled out of the Test because they were 2-1 up in the series is nonsense. Virat Kohli and his team want to create history, as they did when they won in Australia earlier this year. And to have done it properly. They did not want to win by default."
