Team India Players To Get A 20-Day Break After The WTC Final

The Virat Kohli-led Indian Cricket Team will get a much-needed 20-day break from the bubble life in the United Kingdom following the completion of the World Test Championship final against New Zealand.

The Indian team will lock horns with New Zealand in the WTC final between June 18-22, post which they will head off for a 20-day break from June 24 before rejoining the bubble on July 14 ahead of the marquee five-match rubber against England, starting August 04.

It will be a welcome break for the Indian cricketers, who are set for an extended bio-bubble life for a better part of the next 6 months which includes the IPL, T20 World Cup, and multiple bilateral assignments.

“The group will head off for the break on June 24 after the final against New Zealand and then regroup again around July 14 to prepare for the Test series against England which gets underway from August 4,” the source said as quoted by ANI.

When asked if the cricketers will be allowed to visit any place which has low or negligible covid cases, the source said that the players cannot travel outside the UK.

“See, it is simple. The boys need to switch off and relax, but we cannot ignore that COVID-19 is still not completely gone. So, the travel plans have to be made in such a way that the boys and the families that are in UK don’t get stuck somewhere while taking the break. Imagine going to some other country and then that place gets a travel ban due to a sudden rise in cases. You don’t want your players or their families stuck. So, we are looking at places in the UK,” the source explained.

Indian cricketers have been a part of the bio-bubble for a better part of the last 9 months. Before leaving for England, captain Virat Kohli had opened up about the rigors of living in a bio-bubble where he also added that the break between the WTC Final and the 5-match Test series will be a brilliant opportunity to switch off before the marquee rubber.

”I feel like after you are done with WTC, I think it is a great opportunity to refresh and restructure, hopefully, if things are okay, just for the guys to be normal and disconnect again, to understand that we have the pressure of a five-match series. Like in Australia, if we had to contest in a bubble for that long period, it would have been tough,” said Kohli.

“Just the fact that we had the freedom to go out and access the kind of things there, it gave us space to refresh and reset. I think it is absolutely fine, it will give us time to refresh and prepare for a long series. That kind of setup is important before you go to a lengthy series. The challenge in England can be daunting, so we want to have the time before that series,” he added.

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