Coronavirus threat: We will not shake hands on Sri Lanka tour: Joe Root

New Delhi, March 3 (HS): England captain Joe Root said that the England cricket team players will avoid shaking hands with each other and instead, use the fist bump for greetings on their upcoming Sri Lanka tour.

The England squad was hit hard by a series of gastroenteritis and flu problems during their recent tour to South Africa with 10 players and 4 support staff members getting hit by a mystery virus before and during the 1st Test in December last year.

With the growing coronavirus outbreak around the world, the players are not going to take any chances on their next tour which is why they have decided to limit their physical contact with each other in Sri Lanka.

Root said, “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.”

“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,” he added.

More than 3,000 people have lost their lives across the globe due to the deadly disease while the number of confirmed cases has crossed 85000.