Aussies finally can get fresh air

NEARLY a week after parting ways in the hotel lobby in Christchurch, Australia’s newlook T20 squad will finally get to train together after everyone returned negative COVID-19 tests.

Captain Aaron Finch and the rest of the squad, which included a raft of potential international debutants such as Josh Philippe and Riley Meredith, travelled to New Zealand on Sunday and went straight into hotel quarantine.

That included hard lockdown until Thursday, with players left staring at the four walls of their hotel rooms.

But release, and relief, came after all players returned negative tests, allowing them to get out and train under a negotiated agreement with New Zealand health authorities before the opening match of the series on February 22.

“We’ve been in proper lockdown for first four days. We haven’t been able to do much at all,” batsman Ashton Turner said from his hotel room on Thursday.

“But after a busy couple of months, physically and mentally, the Big Bash has been allconsuming, I have actually enjoyed a couple of days to be by myself, chill out a bit.

“We’re fortunate now that all of our COVID swabs have come back negative. We’ve got access to the gym and we’ll do some cricket training tomorrow as a group, and that’ll be the first real time that I’ll be able to see the rest of the guys.

‘We haven’t been able to spend much time together. But we have access to a cricket ground pretty much every day in the lead-up to our first game.”

The squad is devoid of potential walk-ups such as Steve Smith, David Warner and Pat Cummins, who were unable to travel to New Zealand when the Test tour of South Africa was postponed.