07 March,2021 08:10 AM IST | Mumbai | Harit Joshi
Ravichandran Ashwin. Pic/AFP
Head coach Ravi Shastri provided a glimpse of what are the challenges of playing in a bio-secure bubble and what the cricketers are subjected to playing in these 'new normal' during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"In the morning, their first prayer is bubble, bubble, bubble, because they have been there since the IPL, it's bubble, bubble, bubble before they go to sleep. It's bubble. It's tough," Shastri said in the post-match interview to the broadcaster Star Sports.
Indian players have been living the bubble-life since the IPL in UAE last year. Once the franchise cricket was completed, they travelled to Australia where they were under hard quarantine of 14 days. Then there were restrictions on not venturing out of the hotel when they arrived for the final Brisbane Test.
After coming from Australia, in a week's time the players were back in the bubble for the England series.
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Playing in a bubble can be taxing, but it has also brought a dimension to socialising skills for the cricketers.
R Ashwin, the Man of the Series with 32 wickets and 189 runs, noticed the team bonding has got better than ever.
"The team bonding and the team morale that the teams build because of these bio-bubbles is something that I have not experienced in the last decade of cricket I have played," Ashwin said.
"It's been quite special, understanding a lot of people, and even the opportunity for someone to understand you as a person, the interaction in the common lounge area that we share is quite special," he added.
The record-breaking off-spinner attributed the comebacks after being one-nil down in Australia and here against England to the bubble life.
"Some of those comebacks and some of those difficult situations that we have faced has not come as a surprise. It got us together," he said.
While the likes of Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Umesh Yadav will head back home after the completion of the Test series, coach Shastri is desperately waiting for "the bubble" to "burst" in three weeks when the limited-overs leg will be completed at Pune on March 28.
