NEWS
Follow UsVirat Kohli and Co. will get a 20-day break from the bubble life in England once they are done with the World Test Championship final against New Zealand in Southampton. The players will get out of the bubble on June 24 before returning to the same life around July 14, ahead of the five-match Test series against England.
The final will be played from June 18 to 22, while the Test series against England will start on August 4. After the completion of the series, the Indian players will fly straight to the UAE to play the remainder of IPL 2021.
Speaking to ANI, sources in the know of developments in the team management said: "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.
"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."
Talking about the bio-bubble life, Kohli had said: "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.
"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."