Team India to stay in 'managed isolation' before WTC final: ICC
Team India will stay in "managed isolation" before the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand, the ICC has revealed. However, the governing body did not specify the exact period of hard quarantine for the team.
Team India will take on New Zealand in the WTC final in Southampton starting on June 18. The Blackcaps are already in England for a two-match Test against the hosts, starting at Lord’s from June 2.
Team India, on the other hand, are undergoing a 14-day hard quarantine in a five-star hotel in Mumbai. The team, led by Virat Kohli, will arrive in the UK on June 3.
An ICC release informed about the WTC final and Team India’s quarantine:
"The event (WTC final) has now been granted an exemption by the UK government as outlined in The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021, released on 17 May 2021," the ICC said in a release.
"....Upon landing, they (India) will proceed directly to the on-site hotel at the Hampshire Bowl where they will be tested again before commencing a period of managed isolation," the ICC release added.
The New Zealand team, on arrival in England, had to undergo a three-day mandatory room quarantine before the players were allowed to train.
Killing time biggest task during quarantine: Team India off-spinner Ravichandra Ashwin
Team India off-spinner Ravichandra Ashwin, who flew to Mumbai from Chennai for the 14-day quarantine ahead of the grueling England tour, admitted that killing time in isolation is one of the toughest tasks.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Mayank Agarwal and Washington Sundar are among the Team India players who have been allowed to use the hotel gym from May 25. They completed their week-long room quarantine and also three returned negative tests. But they still have to spend most of their time in their hotel rooms.
In a video on his official YouTube channel, the Team India off-spinner said a couple of days back:
“The biggest difficulty for us is how to kill time during quarantine. If we wake up soon, it will be a really long day for us. We try to wake up late but I can’t sleep for more than 8 or 9 AM. I am here with my wife and my two daughters. Since me and my wife are not going out of this room, we decided to even skip a meal, because we hardly exhaust our energy. And my daughters will wave if they see Rishabh or Shubman from our window. That is the maximum entertainment for us.”
Both the Indian men’s and women’s teams will fly the UK together for their respective England tours. The women’s team will feature in one Test, three ODIs and as many T20Is in England.
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