Legendary Indian skipper Kapil Dev has been outspoken about the injuries to the key Indian players ahead of the all-important World Cup in India. Rohit Sharma-led side’s preparations for the marquee event on home soil have not been encouraging with several Indian players being at the NCA recovering from major injuries.
Indian players KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, and Prasidh Krishna are undergoing rehabilitation after suffering injuries.
The Indian team would require a few of these players to achieve their full fitness ahead of the Asia Cup 2023 and ODI World Cup 2023, as this would give them a chance to end their ICC title drought after 10 long years.
Speaking in an interview with The Week, Kapil Dev questioned Jasprit Bumrah’s return to the team for the World Cup and said that India missed wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant in the longer format of the game.
He added that IPL can be a good thing for the players and cricket but it can also spoil their careers as most of the players play the tournament with ‘little injuries’ and wants the players to take a proper break between the tournaments to be fully fit to play for the country.
“What happened to Bumrah? He started working with so much belief, but if he’s not there (in the World Cup semi-final/final)… we wasted time on him. Rishabh Pant… such a great cricketer. Had he been there, our Test cricket would’ve been better.
“God is kind, it’s not as if I never got injured. But today, they are playing 10 months in a year. Give a benefit of doubt to that, but everybody has to look after themselves.
“IPL is a great thing but IPL can spoil you also. Because of a little bit of injuries and you will play in IPL. A little bit of injuries, you won’t play for India. You would take a break. I’m being very open about it,” Kapil Dev said.
In recent months, the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, and Washington Sundar had to spend a good amount of time at the NCA due to their persistent injury issues.
Cricket Board Has To Understand How Much Cricket They Should Play – Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev has urged BCCI to look make the players understand the amount of games they need to play to keep themselves fit to play for the Indian team. In WTC Final against Australia, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Jasprit Bumrah could have made a difference but they could not make it into the team due to injury.
“If you have a small injury, you would play in IPL if it’s an important game. At this stage, the cricket board has to understand how much cricket they should play. That is the bottom line. If today, you have resources, money, but you don’t have three or five-year calendars. There’s something wrong with the cricket board there,” Kapil Dev added.
Indian team management is looking for replacements who can take up the role of these players in the mega event later this year, as they tried to play some fringe Indian players in the recent 2nd ODI against West Indies which proved to be costly as the team loss the game by six wickets in Barbados.