India are slated to kick off the South Africa series on December 17 and were originally expected to fly out around December 8.
India’s tour of South Africa has hit a roadblock with the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant Omicron, which has brought a surge in positive cases in the country. India’s Test captain Virat Kohli is confident that they will get total clarity on the situation in a couple of days.
Kohli was speaking in the press conference on Thursday ahead of the second Test against New Zealand, which concludes on December 7. India are scheduled to play a three-match Test series in South Africa starting from December 17, for which they have to fly out soon after the Mumbai Test.
The situation in South Africa doesn’t look promising, especially in Gauteng province, where India are slated to play the first Test. Last week, the Netherlands’ tour of SA was called off after the first ODI as several countries imposed travel restrictions on South Africa.
However, the India A team has continued its tour against South Africa A, giving CSA hope the senior Indian team will also travel.
“Our focus from the Test match will not shift regardless, but also you want to have clarity and you want to be in a situation where you know exactly what is going on.
We have been talking to the board, and we are pretty confident that within a day or two or pretty soon we will have absolute clarity as to what is going on,”
Kohli said.
The BCCI has said that the series will go ahead but the final decision will have to be from the government of India. In September, India had refused to play the fifth Test against England after positive cases were found within the support staff.
CSA is hopeful that the series will go ahead because losing out on the India tour could put a further financial dent. Last year, England had abandoned the tour after positive cases emerged in the Proteas camp. Australia had also cancelled their tour citing health concerns.
There were reports that the Indian board has asked for the series to be pushed back by a week so that they can assess the situation. CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki denied any such reports.
“There hasn’t been such request or discussion with the BCCI, hence it is purely speculation unless or until they engage us on this. So as of now, CSA is not aware of this,”
he stated.
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