- Proteas skipper Quinton de Kock is frank about being a professional sportsman during a pandemic, calling it "unsettling".
- The 28-year-old notes that the mind can drift a bit when one is confined to a hotel room and limited surroundings.
- Head coach Mark Boucher is a bit more pragmatic about the matter, arguing that touring the sub-continent, even in normal times, is confined to hotels.
You find a professional athlete more frank about the challenge of playing sport in a time of Covid-19 than Quinton de Kock.
The Proteas skipper is obviously grateful that he and his team-mates are engaged in on-field action, but admits that one does become a bit "unsettled" when one's operating in an environment where broader society is battling a resurgence of the virus.
De Kock himself will need mental steel as he's already been exposed to three bio-bubbles in the last few months and will encounter three more - one in Pakistan and two at home against Australia and selfsame Pakistanis.
It's certainly playing on his mind.
"There are a lot of nerves that go around when it comes to the bubble," De Kock said after South Africa clinched a 2-0 Test series win over Sri Lanka.
"Lots of small things get into your mind, things that you're not used to in life. One day we could be living kind of normally and the next you're in lockdown.
"Where do we go from there? We're stuck in a bubble, and we could be stuck in a lockdown in some place for a certain period of time, which is the worst case scenario.
"As a normal person, that's the way you think about things."
However, for now, De Kock is trying to confine his thoughts to coping with a cricket bubble and not the pandemic in general.
"Bubbles just make tours longer because of the quarantine period. You stay in your room for a certain amount of time. You get out when we are declared safe. It's very unsettling. I don't know how long it can last for. But, for now, you try and deal with it in the best way possible," he said.
Mark Boucher, the Proteas' head coach, though tries to see cricket's new reality in a more pragmatic light.
"We go to the sub-continent quite a bit, and you don't leave your hotel a lot there. We're used to it," said the legendary former international wicketkeeper.
"We'll keep learning from bubble life and what we have to do to try and make life easier for the players. The longer it gets in these bubbles, the more mental strength the players have to have. It can be challenging being away from family, especially at this time of year."
The national squad will assemble again on January 15 before departing for Pakistan.