WTC Final: Indian men and women check into Southampton hotel, will undergo 5-day quarantine [Exclusive]

Both the Indian men’s and women’s cricket teams landed in London on Thursday (June 3) morning and checked into their cricket ground-cum-hotel in Southampton. They will now have to undergo a mandatory quarantine period before getting on with their respective itineraries.

The 24-member Indian men’s team and the 20-strong women contingent took a charter flight from Mumbai to Heathrow airport last night. They traversed the 130 odd kilometers between London and Southampton in the team buses. However, the Hilton at the Ageas Bowl will now be home to the entire Indian cohort for the next few days.

Sources close to the Indian team confirmed to Sportskeeda that everyone will have a three-day hard quarantine before being allowed to train in small groups for the subsequent two days. During the course of these five days, all members will undergo three Covid-19 tests starting today. They will be allowed to begin full-fledged practice only after overcoming these initial hurdles.

The Indian men’s team will play the World Test Championship (WTC) final against New Zealand from June 18 at the Hampshire Bowl itself. They will then have a month-long gap before engaging with the hosts in a five-Test series starting August 4.

On the other hand, Mithali Raj’s girls will travel to Bristol to play a historic one-off Test against England starting June 16. The Indian women’s team is set to feature in the longest format for the first time in seven years.

The development comes after days of speculations surrounding the quarantine period the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) would potentially have in store for Team India.

The short isolation period, though, must have been the result of all the members staying in hard quarantine for 14 days in a pre-departure bio-bubble in Mumbai starting May 17. Notably, players and support staff staying in and around Mumbai joined the bubble on May 24.

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Complete schedule of India tour of England 2021 (Timings in IST)

India Women vs England Women timetable

Only Test: June 16-19 - County Ground, Bristol – 3:30 PM

1st ODI: June 27 – County Ground, Bristol – 3:00 PM

2nd ODI: June 30 – The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton – 6:30 PM

3rd ODI: July 3 – New Road, Worcester – 3:00 PM

1st T20I: July 9 – County Ground, Northampton – 11:00 PM

2nd T20I: July 11 – County Ground, Hove – 7:00 PM

3rd T20I: July 15 – County Ground, Chelmsford – 7:00 PM

Indian men’s timetable

WTC final vs NZ: June 18-22 – The Rose Bowl, Southampton – 3:30 PM

1st Test vs ENG: August 4-8 – Trent Bridge, Nottinghom – 3:30 PM

2nd Test: August 12-16 – Lord’s, London – 3:30 PM

3rd Test: August 25-29 – Headingley, Leeds – 3:30 PM

4th Test: September 2-6 – Kennington Oval, London – 3:30 PM

5th Test: September 10-14 – Old Trafford, Manchester – 3:30 PM

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