“Stuck In Hotel Rooms For 10 Weeks, Slow Wi-Fi, Couldn’t Stream Netflix,” Stuart Board Recalls England's India Tour Earlier This Year

England fast bowler Stuart Broad has recalled the difficulties that the touring team faced during their tour of India earlier in 2021 which entailed 4 Tests, 3 ODIs, and 5 T20I matches. He shared the experience of living in a strict bio-bubble in India, which was experiencing the start of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

England didn’t manage to do well in the Test series, as after winning the first Test in Chennai, they lost the remaining three Test matches in Chennai and Ahmedabad to lose the series 1-3 and were knocked out of the World Test Championship 2021 final as well.

Broad’s recollection of his time in strict bio-bubble in India as he said that he understood the problems Indian players faced in England recently, after COVID-10 cases in their camp led to the cancelation of the fifth Test at Manchester.

We’d Not Seen Other Human Beings: Stuart Broad On Bio-Bubble On India Tour

When England toured India, they were beginning to experience the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and though the Test matches in Chennai and Ahmedabad and the T20Is in Ahmedabad saw some crowd, the ODIs in Pune was played behind closed doors as number began to rise exponentially.

“I am certainly not going to preach that what they did was wrong because I remember how I felt for the last Test match in Ahmedabad, having been locked away for 10 weeks in hotel rooms. We’d not seen other human beings, been kept away from our families, had slow Wi-Fi and couldn’t even stream Netflix,” Broad wrote in his column for Daily Mail.

“By the end of it we were worn down and the thought of then potentially catching the virus during those final few days of the tour — and having to spend another fortnight locked away — made me feel quite unstable,” he added.

I Understand Indian Player Panicking: Stuart Broad

A host of former England players came down hard on the Indian team for cancelling the fifth and final Test of the series with England trailing 1-2. Almost all of them blamed the IPL 2021 in UAE for this cancellation as there was no room to move the Test match a day or two after the scheduled date as Indian players had to fly to UAE for the second half of the IPL 14.

However, Broad was sympathetic with the Indian players’ plight given that any postponement of the Test was cutting it too close to their flights to UAE.

“I know Michael Vaughan was quite vociferous, saying India’s decision was all about the IPL riches — and I am not saying it didn’t play its part — but I can understand them panicking so close to their flights out,” Broad said.

While the ECB has asked the ICC to adjudicate on the fifth Test and call it a forfeit so they could claim insurance, the BCCI wants the series to be called in favour of India 2-1. BCCI has also offered to play the fifth Test at a later date, to which the ECB has not responded.

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