Team India To Quarantine For 3 Days Before Leaving For Tour Of South Africa

The Indian cricket team will undergo a three-day quarantine in Mumbai before flying to Johannesburg, South Africa on Wednesday by a charter flight.

Members of the South Africa-bound squad have been asked to check into a five-star hotel near the Mumbai International Airport by Sunday evening to fulfil the biosecurity protocols, a Cricbuzz report said.

Before entering the bio-bubble, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Shardul Thakur took part in a mini-camp at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai under India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey.

India will play three Tests and three ODIs but at this point, only the members of the Test squad will fly to the Rainbow Nation.

Meanwhile, a few members of the India A squad -- Navdeep Saini, Saurabh Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Arzan Nagwaswallam, Hanuma Vihari, and Vivek Ramakrishna (trainer), who were involved in a three-game series against South Africa A, have stayed back and will join the senior side after they reach there.

The rest of the India A squad avoided landing in Mumbai and flew directly to Ahmedabad from Bloemfontein to avoid strict quarantine protocols in Maharashtra.

Notably, there were concerns around senior teams' travel to South Africa, which is reeling under Omicron, a new and deadlier variant of COVID-19. However, the incident-free A tour has emboldened the BCCI and the members for travelling to the country. The CSA has also promised to leave nothing to chance on the implementation of BSE protocols during the tour.

The first of the three Tests starts in Centurion on December 26. Wanderers in Johannesburg and Newlands in Cape Town will host the other two Tests.