Cricket Australia is determined to host the first Test in Adelaide despite the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the city. The city has been nominated as a COVID ‘hotspot’ due to the rise in the number of cases recently. However, the Australian cricket board is confident of hosting what would be India’s first day-night Test match on foreign soil.
The series begins from November 27 with the ODIs followed by the T20Is. The four-match Test series starts from December 3.
Australian authorities conducted mass tests on Tuesday and about 4,000 people were confined to quarantine in the hope of stifling a new cluster of cases of the novel coronavirus after hopes it had been largely eradicated.
Adelaide Set To Host First Test vs India
“Cricket Australia (CA) continues to monitor the situation in South Australia but remains committed to hosting the first Test against India at the Adelaide Oval,” said the cricket board in a statement.
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Meanwhile, the South Australian states have been asked to go under lockdown. South Australia Premier Steven Marshall said that they found five new cases in the past 24 hours and are awaiting the results of 14 more infected.
Marshal further added that the infection has been further spread by an Australian who arrived in South Australia from overseas on Nov. 2 and entered mandatory quarantine in a hotel.
“We are not out of the woods. We are just at the beginning stages of dealing with this particular very nasty cluster,” Marshall told reporters in Adelaide.
Sydney is the likely replacement for the first Test in case Adelaide does not host the first Test. However, Cricket Australia believes that would not be required.
Steven Marshall and chief health officer Nicola Spurrier are confident that the outbreak will be kept in check. Or as Spurrier put it, “What we are facing is, indeed, a second wave but we haven’t got the second wave yet.”
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