Focus back on BCCI's injury management

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Focus back on BCCI's injury management

Deepak Chahar's injury has brought Indian cricket's injury-management system back in focus. © AFP

Deepak Chahar's injury has brought Indian cricket's injury-management system back in focus. Be it Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur or Hardik Pandya, Team India has been plagued by frequent breakdowns of key pacers over the last two years.

The Indian cricket board (BCCI) has been trying to fix the recurrence of such injuries. Chief selector MSK Prasad cited the amount of cricket a modern-day India cricketer plays as a reason behind these breakdowns.

"You have to understand that these players play a lot of matches. Even Chahar had been constantly giving his all for Rajasthan in tournaments like Syed Mushtaq Ali between two international series. His injury got aggravated during the last ODI series against West Indies," Prasad said on Monday.

The sheer number of domestic, India 'A' and India matches put a lot of strain on the up and coming players. Prasad said that he had given a presentation to the BCCI in order to preserve bowlers at the domestic level. "We gave a presentation to the captains and coaches at a conclave last year. We had recommended that there should be a system where the identified bowlers are given adequate rest during the domestic season. Each team plays at least eight Ranji games in two months besides other tournaments," Prasad told TOI while adding: "We have to also understand that state teams also want to win, get promoted or grow. It is eventually the state team's call. But we are seeing positive changes this year."

BCCI had bought wearable Athlete Management System (AMS) devices to monitor the workload of the centrally contracted players. BCCI has 25 contracted players and has around 30 devices. Chahar, for example, is one of the many upcoming pacers who are not part of that pool who are constantly monitored.

However, the National Cricket Academy has a total pool of around 50 cricketers whose workload is being monitored in various other ways.

If BCCI wants to continue to have a relentless pace attack at its disposal, it would have to come up with a uniform system that will monitor pacers across all states.