Indonesian Patriots Players Are Physically Fit 100 Percent And Ready To Fight In The 2022 IBL Continuation

Illustration of Indonesia Patriots (Photo: IBL)

JAKARTA – The Indonesian Patriots basketball team is ready to continue the IBL 2022 competition. Their physicality is 100 percent ready to fight in the highest caste of national basketball.

The IBL will resume on Thursday, March 3, after being suspended since early February due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. All matches will be held centrally at the Senayan Basketball Hall, Jakarta.

"The physical condition of the players is 100 percent ready, but of course we will see and evaluate in the game, because the team has not competed for a long time," said Indonesia Patriots manager Jamin Mattotoran.

The Indonesian Patriots squad has been hit by the COVID-19 storm since the opening of the series II which was held in Bandung on January 29. This made them unable to play a single match until the IBL suspended the competition until this month.

However, all the players in the team that became the forerunner of the Indonesian national basketball team have all been negative. This is based on the results of the tests they underwent twice each on February 22 and 27 yesterday.

"As of March 1, we were all at the hotel and had the 3rd PCR swab test from IBL. The results are out and all are declared negative and ready to compete. Right now we can only wait in the room,” said Jamin.

The continuation of the IBL that is in sight makes the coaching team have to keep all Indonesian Patriots personnel healthy while ensuring they comply with health protocols. This is the main job so that incidents like the series II Bandung do not repeat themselves.

Jamin said that he believed his squad would improve even though he had not played in a long time. In addition, he also ensured that the Indonesian Patriot team had understood the coach's strategy so that they were ready to play.

"For tactical stabilization, it's definitely better, only because of the pandemic conditions so we can't do trials with other teams. However, we are optimistic about the energy and enthusiasm of the young patriots players," he said.

A total of five matches will heat up the first day of the continuation of the IBL on Thursday tomorrow. Newcomer RANS PIK Basketball opened the competition against the young Satya Wacana Salatiga team.

After that the match continued to Evos Thunder Bogor with Bali United Basketball. This will be an interesting reunion between Daniel Timothy Wenas and his former team Bali United.

The postponed match of the second series between NSH Mountain Gold Timika against the Tangerang Hawks and Bumi Borneo Basketball Pontianak versus Amartha Hangtuah will also heat up the first day of the regular round competition.

Meanwhile, the Indonesia Patriots who are ready to return to the IBL will close the first day of the match. They are scheduled to meet with Pacific Caesar Surabaya.