'Pretty selfish, they put....' - Paine on Team India stars' alleged bio-bubble breach during 2020/21 Tests

The India-Australia Test series was full of action, drama and entertainment during the 2020/21 Border Gavaskar Trophy, held Down Under. While India defied all odds to beat Australia, 2-1, after a disastrous show in the opening Test, the series was filled with various sledging episodes, racial abuse, alleged bio-bubble breach, etc.

Ahead of the third and penultimateTest, at the SCG, Sydney, Team India star players -- Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and Navdeep Saini -- were caught in a huge controversy after an image went viral with all four of them sitting inside a restaurant, breaching the bio-bubble rules for the four-match Test series Down Under. It became a huge talking point before BCCI denied all such claims.

As per the bio-bubble rules back, the cricketers wereallowed to dine out at a restaurant. However, theywere told to avoid sitting indoors, to eliminate the chances of contracting the deadly COVID-19 virus.

In the docu-series Bandon Mein Tha Dum, Tim Paine -- who was captaining Australia back then -- blamed the Indian players for putting the entire series at risk.

"I mean those 4-5 guys put the whole Test series at risk. For what? For a bowl of Nando’s, chips or wherever they went, like I just find that pretty selfish to be honest,” said Paine, who was succeeded by Pat Cummins as the Aussie Test captain following his sexting scandal last year.

Even Cummins reacted in the docu-series and stated, “It did annoy quite a few of the boys. Especially the ones who had to spend a Christmas without their families. That was sacrificing quite a bit to be there on that tour to hear that the other team were flouting the rules and not taking it as seriously."

India's then stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane defended his troops saying, "The players who appeared in the pictures were actually waiting for their takeaway order. Due to bad weather, they had to wait inside. The story that appeared in the news was really wrong."

Amid many on and off-field drama, the India-Australia series was one for the ages, where a second-stringed Indian team defeated Australia to win their second successive series in whites on the Aussie soil.