The men-in-blue are writing new chapters in the history of Indian cricket with every series they are getting into. However, the injuries of the cricketers have become uncomfortably frequent in the team in the last couple of years.
The recent lot includes Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav who sustained injuries during Pakistan and Bangladesh in the recently-concluded Asia Cup in Dubai. Even skipper Virat Kohli batted with a back pain in the final Test against England and is reportedly recovering from a wrist injury at the moment.
All these have brought team physio Patrick Farhat and trainer Shankar Basu under the scanner.
According to several media reports, a senior BCCI official has shown the concern on this grim situation and said, “There are a lot of systems that have broken down within the BCCI, but the one that directly impacts the elite athletes is the mess in the structure of the strength and conditioning department of the board. There is no sync between Patrick and Ashish Kaushik (NCA physio) and they are in a way, islands. The treasurer had written a detailed email in this regard a while back and we were hopeful that the mess would be sorted out but that, like many other crucial things, was also swept under the carpet by the present dispensation.”
The BCCI official went to reveal that a few players are not comfortable with Basu, who was brought in by Virat Kohli.
“The role of Basu as a trainer is also under heavy scrutiny. Quite a few players are not comfortable with him. This mess needs sorting but there is no one competent enough to sort the mess presently as the present dispensation blunders from situation to situation,” added the BCCI official.
The cases of growing injuries are compelling the players to miss out major tournaments. Pandya, who suffered an acute back injury during the Super Four tie against Pakistan, failed to make it in the West Indies Test.
On the other hand, Jadhav sustained a relapse of the hamstring problem after having gone through a similar injury during the IPL 2018.