England captain Joe Root said that his players will not shake hands on their tour of Sri Lanka to avoid the dangerous coronavirus. Root was asked on the coronavirus on Monday as England were preparing to depart for their two-Test tour. However, he said that instead of shaking hands, England players will greet each other with fist bumps. Earlier England was hit by a series of gastroenteritis and flu issues during the first Test on their tour of South Africa in recent times.
“After the illnesses that swept through the squad in South Africa, we are well aware of the importance of keeping contact to a minimum and we’ve been given some really sound and sensible advice from our medical team to help prevent spreading germs and bacteria,” Root said.
“We are not shaking hands with each other, using instead the well-established fist bump, and we are washing hands regularly and wiping down surfaces using the anti-bacterial wipes and gels we’ve been given in our immunity packs,” Joe Root shared.
“There is no suggestion that the tour will be affected, but of course it is an evolving situation so we are in regular contact with the authorities and will proceed as advised, but at this stage we fully expect the tour to continue as planned,” he told.
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England will play two practice games against Sri Lanka Board Presidents XI in Katunayake on Saturday prior to the Tests, which will be a part of the ICC World Test Championship. England won 3-0 in Sri Lanka two years ago but Joe Root is hopeful for a tougher challenge this time.
“The conditions will be a bit different with the time of year we are going this time,” he said. “The three games we played out there last time were all very close with less than 60 runs between the teams in the last two Tests.”
“It was an exceptional performance last time and I think we can take a lot of confidence from that in terms of how to play out there. We respect how good a side they are in their own conditions and we’ll find ourselves up against a stiff challenge,” Root concluded.
