Australia tour to happen in December but we expect reduced period of quarantine, states Sourav Ganguly
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has asked for a reduced no. of quarantine days as he confirmed India’s tour of Australia will happen in December this year. Australia, which currently has 194 active COVID-19 cases, has been able to check the spread of the virus except in its biggest city - Melbourne.
After Cricket Australia revealed that Team India would be visiting them later this year, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly too confirmed the tour. Meanwhile, a spike in Covid-19 cases in Melbourne had increased doubts over the India-Australia Boxing Day Test at the MCG, starting on December 26. While confirming the Australia tour in December, Ganguly called for a shortened quarantine period for the Indian players. Ganguly reasoned that two weeks of quarantine could be too depressing for the touring players and that the nation is significantly down in COVID-19 cases. Meanwhile, the West Indies squad spent 14 days in quarantine after landing in England on June 9 for the three-Test series, that began on July 8, marking the resumption of international cricket.
"Ya, ya, we have confirmed that tour. In December we will be coming. We just hope the number of quarantine days get reduced a bit. Because we don't want the players to go all that far and sit in hotel rooms for two weeks. It is very, very depressing and disappointing. And, as I said Australia and New Zealand have been in good position except Melbourne. So from that point of view we will be going there and hopefully the quarantine days will be less and we can get back to cricket," Ganguly told TV channel India Today.
Further on, Ganguly backed his side to win under Kohli's leadership when India tour Australia this year. The last time India toured Down Under, in 2018-19, they won the four-match Test series 2-1. But that was against an Australian side without top batsmen David Warner and Steve Smith, who both missed the series due to their ball-tampering bans.
"It is going to be a tough series. It is not going to be what it was two years back. It is going to be a strong Australia but our team is as good. We have the batting, we have the bowling. We just need to bat better. You the best team overseas bat well. When we were so successful in England, in Australia, in Pakistan we were getting 400-500-600 in Test matches. I said that to Virat as well," added Ganguly.
"Because you are Virat Kohli your standards are high. When you walk out to play, when you walk out with your team, I, watching on TV, don't expect you to just play well against Australia. I expect you to win. So you have to live up to the standards. For his captaincy tenure this will be a milestone series - more than the World Cup.”