India ready to play at Gabba: CA

Sydney, Jan. 4: Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley on Monday dismissed reports that the Indian team is reluctant to play the fourth Test in Brisbane because of stricter quarantine rules there.

Hockley said the Indian cricket board was “fully across (and) supportive” of quarantine requirements in Queensland.

“We speak to our counterparts at the BCCI daily,” he told reporters here.

“We’ve had nothing formal from the BCCI to suggest anything other than they’re supportive. Both teams have wanted to play the schedule as we’ve set out,” he asserted.

The third Test in the four-match series is scheduled to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground from Thursday. The series is locked at 1-1 right now.

The fourth game is due

The reports, citing unnamed sources, claimed that the Indian team wanted the fourth Test to be also held in Sydney.

Queensland has closed its borders for people travelling from New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, due to the rising cases of Corona virus in the city and surrounding areas.

Hockley’s statement came two days after five Indian players — Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Navdeep Saini and Prithvi Shaw — were placed in isolation for an alleged breach of bio-security protocols.

Cricket Australia, in a media release, said it is probing the matter jointly with the BCCI after a video of the players at an indoor restaurant was posted by a fan, who identified himself as Navaldeep Singh on Twitter.