The Indian cricket team just had to go through one day of hard quarantine on their arrival to South Africa as they were allowed to assemble in the resort they are staying and get indulged in mild training before they start full-fledged practice ahead of the 3-match test series.
The reason why the Indian players were not required to go through a 3-day quarantine was that they had already completed their quarantine back in India before taking their flight, and the flight was a charter plane arranged by the BCCI. It was basically a bubble to bubble transfer of Indian players from India to South Africa.
Also the resort where the Indian team is staying, the entire resort has been booked only for the Indian players and the entry and exit for any outsider is denied. The Indian team, if they wanted, could have straightaway started their practice as well, but the strength and conditioning coach decided mild training was the way to go because of the change in altitude.
The players and the support staff played a light game of football where the head coach Rahul Dravid himself was involved as well and he seemed to be having quite a bit of fun with the captain Virat Kohli, who is in hot waters at the moment because of his tussle with the BCCI.
Indian team will probably have rigorous practice sessions soon as they would want some proper preparation ahead of the Boxing Day test match, given the fact that they are coming from the test matches in India where the nature of the pitches was significantly different.
India aim their first-ever test series win in South Africa
The Boxing Day test match is just a week away and while a couple of players in the Indian squad are slightly accustomed to the South African conditions having been there with the India A squad, they are not likely to be in the Indian XI in the Boxing Day game.
A key part of India’s preparation before the Boxing Day game is also to gel well among themselves, simply because of the controversial times the team is going through right now after the leadership changes.
The video of the bonding session and the light football game uploaded by BCCI must have been heartening to see for the Indian fans. The test series against South Africa is extremely vital for India as far as the current WTC cycle is concerned.
How did #TeamIndia recharge their batteries ahead of their first training session in Jo'Burg? 🤔
AdvertisementOn your marks, get set & Footvolley! ☺️😎👏👌#SAvIND pic.twitter.com/dIyn8y1wtz
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 18, 2021
