The Indian team landed in Australia on Thursday for a two-month tour comprising three ODI, three T20I and four Tests. Most of the players have flown directly from the UAE, where the recently concluded IPL took place. Some of them, such as Cheteshwar Pujara, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, have traveled with their immediate families.
Dubai Sydney
Hello australia #TeamIndia it’s here! pic.twitter.com/Rfu0wZlXW0
– BCCI (@BCCI) November 12, 2020
The Indian tourism group will go into quarantine for two weeks, during which they will be allowed to train subject to the approval of the Covid-19 testing protocols implemented by Cricket Australia in coordination with the local government. It is understood that they will start training from November 14 in Sydney. Most players have already been living the biobubble life for nearly three months and will go through its rigors for two more.
Rohit Sharma, who led the Mumbai Indians to their fifth IPL title this week, and Ishant Sharma were not part of the tour. Rohit, along with Ishant, will join the team just before the test series begins on December 17. While Rohit is resting from the limited leg of the tour due to a hamstring injury sustained during the IPL, Ishant suffered an abdominal muscle tear injury that had excluded him from much of the tournament.
India’s captain Virat Kohli will return home after the first test concludes on December 21 to attend the birth of his first child. The Australian government’s 14-day quarantine rules, applicable to the entire team despite flying from a bio-bubble in the UAE, means that it would be very difficult for Kohli to return to Australia and participate in the remaining three tests.
India also remains cautious with their test goalkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, who missed the last two games for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL after injuring both hamstrings. They also had to remove the mysterious spinner Varun Chakravarthy from their T20I squad after he learned he was suffering from a shoulder injury, with the T Natarajan pacemaker in place. Meanwhile, Sanju Samson, who was initially only part of the T20I team, was added to the ODI team as a reserve goalkeeper.
On my way @BCCI pic.twitter.com/OMzI8u45Fa
– Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) November 11, 2020
The tour begins with the first ODI in Sydney on November 27, followed by the three T20Is ending on December 8. But the second and third T20I collide with a three-day tour match between Australia A and India A, which begins on December 6. That follows another warm-up match that begins on December 11, before the first test begins in Adelaide.
The Adelaide event will also be the first time India will play a day and night event away from home, and their only pink ball event was against Bangladesh in Kolkata last year. The tour then moves to Melbourne and Sydney, which will host the Boxing Day and New Year’s events, before concluding on January 21 with the fourth and final event in Brisbane.
Despite restrictions around the Covid-19 pandemic, Cricket Australia had confirmed that crowds of varying degrees will be allowed to attend each of the Australia-India matches.
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