Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya had also breached the bio-bubble protocols by visiting a store in December

Rohit Sharma and four other cricketers dining at a restaurant in Melbourne on the New Year’s Day has come under the scanner. While they have been placed in isolation at the moment even as they can train maintaining a social distance from the other teammates, another incident of Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya breaching the bio-secure protocols during the limited-overs leg of the tour has come forward.

India and Australia were involved in three ODIs and as many T20 Internationals before the four-match Test series got underway. The limited-overs matches were played in Sydney and Canberra from November 27 to December 8 with the last match of the series played at the SCG.

However, on December 7, the Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya both visited a baby shop in Sydney. Kohli, who is expecting a baby this month with his wife Anushka Sharma, bought a bagful of goodies from the store before he and Pandya posed with the staff for several pictures.

A visit to the store from the two cricketers was in itself a breach of bio-security rules set by Cricket Australia, as an official confirmed the same to The Age. Moreover, both Kohli and Pandya should’ve been wearing masks when they walked inside but they didn’t.

 

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Another minor breach of protocols in Adelaide

A week or so later in Adelaide as well, a group of Indian players stopped at an eatery Waffle and Coffee in trendy inner-city Leigh Street. A couple of them went inside to order before sitting out on a table with everyone. But the ones who went inside were expected to wear masks which they didn’t.

However, both the breaches were minor in terms CA’s bio-bubble guidelines and hence, were not reported to the concerned authorities. This proves that Rohit Sharma and Co dining in a restaurant is not the only breach on the tour and all of them come under low risk. But as it was reported earlier, the Indian team was expecting for them to be treated as normal Australians after serving the mandatory 14-day quarantine period.