Team India unwilling for hard lockdown in Brisbane

Team India. Pic/AFP

Team India are reluctant to travel to Brisbane for the fourth Test if they are placed under hard lockdown in Queensland. India made it clear from the beginning, once they had completed their initial 14-day quarantine in Sydney upon landing, that they were unwilling for hard lockdown during the rest of the tour.

According to reports in the Australian media, both teams would be ordered into hotel quarantine in Queensland if the series progresses to the Gabba via Sydney. It means both squads would only be allowed to leave their hotels for training sessions and to play the fourth Test match.

Cricket Australia (CA) has been cooperative with the Indian team's requests to allow for more freedom once their initial quarantine period was completed on November 26. The softer bubble has allowed slightly more freedom for the members of the Indian team. However, five Indian players were placed in isolation for alleged bio-secure bubble breach.

In the past couple of weeks, there have been new COVID-19 cases in New South Wales and Victoria, prompting Queensland to close their borders to the southern states. It has led to CA gaining an exemption from the Queensland government to fly teams from Sydney to Brisbane for the fourth Test.

Australia and India players will share a chartered flight on January 12 and will be taken straight to a Brisbane hotel, where they must serve hard quarantine. But it is learnt that the Indian team are unwilling to be placed into a hard bubble in Brisbane. India wants to adhere to the same protocol imposed on them after the initial 14-day period.