India cricketers expect to know in the next few days whether their tour of South Africa later this month will go ahead following the emergence there of the Omicron coronavirus variant, according to captain Virat Kohli.
Sport in South Africa began to shut down last week following the emergence of Omicron, with travel bans and restrictions on flights leaving rugby teams and golfers scrambling to leave the country.
South Africa are set to host India in a three-test series starting in Johannesburg on December 17 followed by three ODIs and four T20s.
Kohli says: “We’re not playing in normal times anyways.
“So there’s a lot of planning that’s involved. There’s a lot of preparation that’s involved in terms of understanding exactly what’s going on…”
Indian cricket board (BCCI) chief Sourav Ganguly told Reuters last week that they were monitoring the situation in South Africa.
Kohli says coach Rahul Dravid has initiated discussions among the senior members of the Indian squad regarding the upcoming tour.
He adds: “We've been talking to the board and we are pretty confident within a day or two or pretty soon we'll have absolute clarity as to what is going on.
“But yeah, look, 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.”