“That’s something we insisted upon and they were happy to agree with that. But they’ll come back under their own steam,on their own ticket,and ... they won’t be taking the spot in quarantine of any other Australian who is returning home under the NSW caps.”

Mr Morrison noted NSW,which has a cap of 430 daily overseas arrivals,had done the “heavy lifting”.

“The NSW government and[Premier] Gladys Berejiklian in particular has been so strong in supporting those higher caps,but in this case,ensuring that when the cricketers come back,they don’t take the spot of anybody else,” he said.

Thousands of citizens remain stranded in India. The firstrepatriation flight since the ban was lifted landed in Darwin on Saturday with 80 of its estimated 150 scheduled passengers. More than 70 were barred from flying after either testing positive ahead of the flight or being listed as a close contact.