India women’s cricket team unlikely to get training permission during quarantine in Australia

The Indian women’s cricket team departed for a full-fledged tour of Australia on Sunday, but fresh COVID-19 related restrictions Down Under means that the players will now have to complete a 14-day hard quarantine upon arrival in Brisbane.

The BCCI was earlier hoping that the players would get to train after a week of hard quarantine but now the players are likely to be confined to their hotel rooms for 14 days.

“Training permission is highly unlikely after the first week in the current scenario. There could be further changes in the itinerary. Hard quarantine will be extremely tough for the players but it is what it is,” said a BCCI official.

A player, trying to see things from a positive aspect, said, “It will be very tough but at least we get to play after that.” The squad, which was training here for the past week, was to fly into Sydney and the other playing venues were Perth and Melbourne but venues have also been changed due to rising cases.

The change of itinerary will be announced by Cricket Australia soon and is subject to approval from the Queensland government since all games will be played in the State.

The series comprising three ODIs, a day-night Test and three T20s, is expected to begin two days later instead of September 19. The new venues are Mackay and Carrara.

The 22-member squad will reach Brisbane via Dubai on Monday.

The team is set to play its first-ever pink ball game and that is seen as its biggest challenge of the tour.

Even during training here, the preparations were focussed on white-ball cricket and it remains to be seen if the team gets a practice game before the series opener.