Virat Kohli opened up about the uncertainty of the upcoming South Africa tour

Virat Kohli finally opened up about the upcoming South African tour as things aren’t looking great at the moment with the emerging Omicron variant of Covid. It is still not sure whether the bilateral affair will go forth or not, given the doldrums surrounding the tournament.

India’s current Test and ODI skipper, Virat Kohli confirmed that a discussion has already been started within the team and clarity was supposed to come out soon. Kohli focused on the fact that it needs to be a more realistic approach.

He said in the press conference, “It's pretty natural (to be concerned), we're not playing in normal times anyway. So there's a lot of planning involved. There's a lot of preparation involved in terms of understanding exactly what's going to go on. There are players who are not part of the group right now who will be entering quarantine to join the team, in the bubble, to fly in a charter. Those kind of things, you want to seek clarity as soon as possible.”

He continued by saying, “We have spoken to all the senior members of the squad. Obviously, Rahul bhai has initiated a conversation within the group, which is very important to know. At the end of the day we understand - our focus from the Test match will not shift regardless - but you want to have clarity and want to be in a situation where you know exactly what's going on. We've been talking to the board and we are pretty confident that within a day or two, or pretty soon we'll have absolute clarity as to what is going on.”

He concluded by saying, “But we need to be realistic about things as well. We cannot just ignore the things that potentially could put you in a confusing place. And no one wants to be there. I'm sure everyone is working hard towards finding clarity and giving us the situation as it unfolds, as soon as possible. We all are hopeful that that will happen soon and as I said, our prime focus right now is the second Test. And the other things are simultaneously being taken care of.”

With all said and done, like a blazing silver lining ahead of the series, India A went forth with their journey in South Africa wherein other teams retracted themselves following the Covid scare. The series between South Africa and the Netherlands saw the second and the third ODI being postponed while the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers was cancelled midway due to travelling restrictions.

The Division two 4-Day matches had to be called off after a sudden rise in Covid positive cases. However, in its defence, CSA quoted that the games were played in a bio-secure bubble.

CSA opened up about its security strategy through Dr Shuaib Manjra, its Chief Medical officer said, “CSA has instituted world class standards and measures to ensure that all players, staff and officials are protected within this environment. Our main focus was to safeguard the cricket biosphere by managing strict entry standards and limited movement outside of its cordon. What we have implemented at our BSE is a cordon sanitaire which offers full and continuous protection to all individuals who respect and abide by our very demanding guidelines and rules.”