The Indian team’s practice session at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) was on Sunday cancelled due to rain and the players were forced to train indoors. In the absence of outdoor activities, the players had a gym session as they continued their preparations for the third Test starting in Sydney from January 7.
“India’s practice session today at the MCG has been cancelled due to rain," the BCCI said in a statement.
Both the Indian and Australian players are scheduled to leave for Sydney on Monday.
On Saturday, Cricket Australia said that five India Test players, including vice-captain Rohit Sharma, have been placed in isolation and an investigation launched into a possible breach of COVID-19 bio-security protocol.
This was after a fan put out a video of the players sitting inside an indoor restaurant on Twitter on Friday. The BCCI brass had initially ruled out any investigation after reports of a possible breach first appeared in the media here, but CA later said a joint probe is on.
The four-match series is levelled at 1-1 after India won by eight wickets at the MCG after losing the day/night Test in Adelaide. Meanwhile, The fourth and final Test between India and Australia starting January 15 in Brisbane, Queensland is in serious doubt after the Indian team expressed their reservations to travel to Queensland and follow increased quarantine restrictions. Due to new community transmission cases reported in New South Wales, Queensland has closed their borders and both the Australian and Indian teams are expected to travel to Queensland on a chartered flight.
A senior Indian team official was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz that the team is not keen on traveling to Brisbane and enter a ‘hard bubble’ again, after being quarantined for 14 days in Dubai and then another 14 days in Sydney. “If you look at it, we were quarantined for 14 days in Dubai before landing in Sydney and doing so for another 14 days. That means we were in a hard bubble for nearly a month before coming out. What we don’t want now is to quarantine again at the end of the tour," a source in the Indian team told the website.
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