Shamik Chakrabarty, Mumbai
In the ongoing season, India have already played a one-off Test and three ODIs against Afghanistan. The home assignments followed two T20Is in Ireland, and five T20Is and three ODIs in England. A three-match T20I series in Zimbabwe was next, followed by a two-Test series in Sri Lanka. All this came on the heels of a gruelling two months of the IPL, where India’s players carried the fatigue and niggles from the T20 World Cup. India still have seven Tests, 14 ODIs and 16 T20Is on their roster this season, besides the Asian Games.
Yes, players are falling like ninepins. As many as 10 cricketers have been undergoing rehabilitation at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. The squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in Delhi came with asterisks, as the availability of four players — Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy — is subject to fitness clearance. But spare a thought for the cricketers and those in charge of their rehabilitation at the CoE. An overload of fixtures is barely allowing any recovery time.
It is good that the BCCI has decided to address the issue by promising a kinder FTP cycle from next season onwards, ensuring that players get adequate rest between assignments. The fitness issue was one of the major talking points at the future roadmap meeting at the cricket board’s headquarters on Thursday. The presence of VVS Laxman, the head of cricket at the CoE, India head coach Gautam Gambhir and India captains Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer allowed everyone to be in sync with the course-correction plan.
“We will take certain measures,” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told reporters after the meeting. “We have instructed our FTP persons, who will be meeting very soon in various international forums, that our FTP should be in such a way that there is proper rest for the players, as well as some kind of acclimatisation and some kind of friendly matches before any major series in SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries.”
He added: “Individual players are having injuries because they have to play a lot of matches if you look at their schedule.
“If you look at it, in England, we had a 15-player team for the ODIs and out of that 15, three-four players got injured during the match. But we have to think about the fact that they have played two months of IPL prior to that. So all this takes a toll on the health of the players also, and to avoid those kinds of situations, what best we can do under the present windows and present FTPs, we are trying to find some ways out.”
Hardik Pandya’s case is a bit complicated. The all-rounder has been undergoing rehabilitation at the CoE. But every time he nears full fitness, the 32-year-old picks up another injury. The series of setbacks saw him miss the ODIs against Afghanistan and England, and now the T20Is against Afghanistan.
“There was no discussion on any individual player today,” said Saikia. “Today’s discussion was totally general in nature and what policy and what protocols we have to maintain regarding maintaining the fitness level of every player, not any individual, and what is in the best interest of the team… We have considered that only.”
With the ODI World Cup scheduled for October-November next year, the BCCI’s remedial measures need to be foolproof. India cannot afford to take a depleted squad to the ICC showpiece.
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