The entire Indian Test squad including the five players - Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Navdeep Saini, and Prithvi Shaw - is slated to travel to Sydney in a chartered flight on Monday, reported news agency PTI. The team, currently in Melbourne, will travel to Sydney together for the thrid Test of the four-match series slated to begin from Thursday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Rohit, Pant, Gill, Saini and Shaw were placed in isolation from the rest of the Indian and Australian squads after Cricket Australia released a joint statement stating that they and BCCI will investigate whether the five players breached the bio-secure protocols by dining out on New Year’s day.
The four-test series between Australia and India is being played amid a backdrop of biosecurity rules, which will get stricter when the squads travel to Sydney on Monday.It is understood that the controversy has not gone down well with the travelling team and it is not amused with how Cricket Australia has so far handled the issue. For BCCI, the man under scanner is administrative manager Girish Dongre. Dongre is an employee of the BCCI and is supposed to handle and also keep the team abreast about the Covid-19 protocols.“The players are not supposed to carry the protocol sheets or remember every fine line written,” another BCCI official said.“There is a professional team of people who have to ensure that every rule is being followed and it was Dongre’s duty to ensure that players are told that they can’t get into an indoor area,” he added. It will be up to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to decide what sanctions, if any, are leveled against the five players.The series is level at 1-1. Australia won the first test by eight wickets in Adelaide and India took the second test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by the same margin.
