Former Indian fast bowler Vivek Razdan has put his weight behind BCCI’s Centre of Excellence amid the rising number of injuries in the Indian team. At one point, 11 players were recovering from their respective injuries, giving selection headaches to the team.
For the T20I series against Afghanistan, four players’ selection was subject to fitness clearance. While the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar got the green signal from the medical team, Harshit Rana suffered a fresh injury, which has put him on the sidelines again.
“It (The injuries) is certainly a big cause for worry, because you don’t wish anyone to be injured, as it impacts the balance of the team. There’s a year left now for the ODI World Cup, right? And you would wish to include and feature those players who will be part of the final squad. I also wish to add one thing because I don’t use social media much, but I get to see and hear things from here and there, we tend to rush into these things quite quickly. Somewhere I saw NCA being criticised, that players are being injured after being cleared. It is important to understand one thing, the NCA has always played a big role, and this is a beloved child of the BCCI,” Vivek Razdan said during a select media interaction organised by Sony Sports Network.
On the other hand, the renowned commentator said it would be wrong to blame the likes of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, the two former players who have been in charge of operations at the CoE.
“When you see a beloved child, you see who they assign to handle it. For many years it was Rahul Dravid in charge, and now it is VVS Laxman who heads the institute. So these are players you cannot raise a finger at. The work that these two have done while playing and after playing, they have always done it in the interest of Indian cricket. So, sometimes we have to be patient. Whenever we observe players during commentary, we also feel that a lot of injuries are happening and often the ideal playing XI is not on the field because of it. But it is a process, injuries will keep happening,” Vivek Razdan explained further.
Razdan reckons the hectic schedule of International cricket is leading to more injuries for Indian cricketers.
“Considering the amount of cricket played yearly now, there is no off-season for these players. The injured players and the kind of injuries that happen to them, look at the pace at which they bowl. At one time, we used to be crazy for pace, we never used to see bowlers bowl at this pace consistently, so we have to be patient. So, work is being done, but the people who are handling this have great cricketing knowledge, so we have to believe and trust the process,” Vivek Razdan said of the injury situation.
India will take on Afghanistan in the first T20I on Sunday.
