Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya
Five Indian cricketers including Rohit Sharma have been accused breaching Covid-19 protocols by eating inside a restaurant and meeting a fan who also claimed to have paid their bill. Along with with the vice-captain, young opening duo of Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and pacer Navdeep Saini have also landed in the soup.
According to the bio-bubble protocols, while the players are allowed to eat at restaurants, they must only be seated outdoors.
A video of the five players sitting at a restaurant on New Year's Day went viral after a cricket fan shared it on his Twitter page. The fan also added that he hugged Pant before clarifying on the following day that he didn't.
Meanwhile, another incident involving Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya has also come under the scanner. During India's limited-overs leg of the Australia tour, the duo, without wearing a mask, was spotted in a baby shop in Sydney on December 7. They bought a bagful of goodies from the store before posing for photos, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
A week later, a group of Indian players were also spotted at an eatery in Leigh Street, with a couple of them going inside to place an order. The players who stepped inside should've been wearing a mask, according to the bio-bubble protocols.
Both the incidents, however, didn't create a stir on social media. They fell under minor end of the scale in terms of breaches of CA's bubble guidelines and hence, were not reported to the concerned authorities.
Contrary to reports which claimed that the five players will be kept in isolation in Melbourne, the Indian contingent is likely to travel together to Sydney on January 4. The protocols are expected to get stricter in Sydney.
The Indian team is currently gearing up to play the third Test at the SCG from January 7. The four-Test series is currently leveled 1-1 after the touring party bounced back from the Adelaide horror to claim an eight-wicket victory in the second Test in Melbourne.
