New Delhi: Former India head coach and cricketer Ravi Shastri talked about the major factors and worries team India needs to overcome before the T20 World Cup 2022 starts. Key players getting injured left, right and center before a major tournament or tour is not new for the national team and Ravi Shastri feels that the time has come to give serious thought to it.
India's most effective pacer Jasprit Bumrah will not be playing the T20 World Cup 2022 due to back issues. After that, Deepak Chahar was ruled out of the tournament due to injury. The Men in Blue currently have Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Harshal Patel in form of pace bowlers. Harshal and Arshdeep are inexperienced for such big event and Kumar, on the other hand, is struggling a lot when it comes to death overs bowling.
"It was the most frustrating thing for me as (India coach), when you lose key players to injuries. We toured England and New Zealand twice. On all those tours, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was injured, where he'd have got a bagful of wickets with his skills. Now, you see Chahar has hardly played, and he's injured. I was looking at the stats, Bumrah has played 5 matches since the last T20 World Cup and he's injured. So, you've got to look at it very seriously, as to why it is happening," Shastri told Ayaz Memon at a 'Meet-the-media programme' at the Mumbai Press Club.
Shastri adviced team India management and coaches to be aware of players' workload management.
"With the volume of cricket that exists today, it's extremely important that you get the balance right of how much a player plays. When should he be rested? And there, a (BCCI) president can play a big role. Tomorrow, if a cricketer, for the sake of playing for India, needs to be rested in the IPL for a certain number of games, so be it. Where, a (BCCI) president has to sit with the franchise and explain that he's extremely important for India first, and then the franchise," Shastri added.
"Discussions can take place with the team management, as to which are the players who need rest, who, if they carry on in this fashion, will be spent forces. And then take that forward to the franchise. In no way getting in the way of the franchise, but in a nice way telling them that he's an important player for India. National interest is paramount."