It seems India are in the sick bay. The hopes brought by the Test win at Edgbaston have faded. The fight the tailenders— Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, in the company of Ravindra Jadeja—put up at Lord’s has passed, too. Now the frontline fast bowlers, considered weapons of destruction in English conditions, are nursing injuries.
This is something India were desperately hoping to avoid ahead of the crucial fourth Test in Manchester that starts on Wednesday. A freak injury to Arshdeep Singh during practice, a back strain for wrecker-in-chief at the second Test, Akash Deep, and a knee ligament issue for all-rounder Nitish Reddy are threatening to stretch the pace attack. Add Bumrah’s muchtalked-about workload management with a fragile back, and the tourists are looking at a major headache.
Cricketers suffering injuries is nothing new, especially fast bowlers. But over the past year-and-a-half, several pacers have spent time injured and in rehabilitation more than playing. Deep, who is doubtful for the Manchester Test, also missed the Sydney Test in January due to a back injury.
An ageing Mohammed Shami is nowhere near full fitness; the other pace sensation Mayank Yadav has been in rehab for most of the last 18 months. This has left the team with little choice but to call Anshul Kamboj. As things are, it should not come as a surprise if he makes his Test debut on Wednesday ahead of the likes of Prasidh Krishna.
One cannot help but wonder why so many pacers are getting injured. The cricket calendar is ever expanding and the top players are expected to play in all formats for the country.
Even if India win at Manchester, they need to ponder whether to play Bumrah in the fifth and final Test. This brings the attention to the BCCI Centre of Excellence, where contracted players report after injury. Last year, the BCCI introduced an Athlete Monitoring System, which the centre uses to monitor the skills and fitness of every player who attends camps.
These reports are available to the state associations to monitor the athletes’ readiness against the workload. Yet, the injuries keep coming. Perhaps it’s time for the BCCI to reassess their mechanism for monitoring— the earlier it’s done, the better.