Harshita
DHARAMSALA: The whole world is left concerned following the rapid spreading of the novel coronavirus. India has reported more than 60 positive cases until now and amid the fears, Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar said that the team might limit the use of saliva to shine the ball, however, it is not confirmed yet.
While being in a press conference here, Kumar said, "We have thought about this thing (not using saliva) but I can't say right now we will not use saliva because if we don't use saliva then how will we shine the ball. Then we will get hit and you people will say you are not bowling well."
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The decision will be taken by the team doctor in a meeting that will be held later on Wednesday. "But it's a valid point and let's see we will have a team meeting today and whatever instruction we get or whatever is the best option we will do. It all depends on the team doctor and what advice he gives us," the Indian baller added.
#TeamIndia for 3-match ODI series against SA - Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill. pic.twitter.com/HD53LRAhoh
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 8, 2020
Ahead of the ODI against South Africa that will commence here on Thursday, Bhuvneshwar said that the team is taking every possible precautionary measure in order to stay safe. He, however, refused to comment anything over the speculations that IPL 2020 might be affected due to this deadly virus.
He said, "You cannot say anything right now because it's taking a dangerous situation in India. But we are taking every precaution we can take. We have a team doctor with us and he is giving us instructions about dos and don'ts. So we hope it won't go (spread) much further."
He further added, "Few dos and don'ts which the team doctor wants us to do. Simple things like maintaining hygiene, keep washing your hands regularly and not going closer to fans and all those things. But we cannot avoid fans because they love us, they support us. In the meantime, we can try and not get too much closer to them. We can avoid as much as we can."
The opponent that is the South African team went ahead with this tour only after their medical team gave a thumps-up after risk assessment.
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The second match of the series will be played on March 15 whereas the second will be played on March 18 in Kolkata.
