Team India's packed schedule a cause for concern
Cricket in India may not follow the law of diminishing marginal utility but it does have an effect. Quantity usually leads to a compromise in quality. Take for instance the T20I series between India and New Zealand. It came on the backdrop of the T20 World Cup that got over on Sunday, with New Zealand losing the final against Australia in Dubai. A day later they were in India for a three-match T20I and two-match Test series, moving from one biosecure bubble to another without a break. The Kiwis peaked during the World Cup and in India, at least during the T20Is, they seemed to go through the rigmarole and looked as jaded as the Men in Blue were when they exited from the T20 World Cup Super 12s. The Indian players had just a week to recover from the rigours of the IPL before the World Cup began.
India needed to prove a point. Under a new leadership—Rohit Sharma as captain and Rahul Dravid as head coach—the team no doubt looked ominous. The T20I series did augur well for Dravid and Rohit. They made a winning start and that too with a set of players custom-made for T20. But this series may not be the true indicator of revival and the team’s ability to fend off bigger challenges will occur overseas. This, however, gives a glimpse of the future, especially in terms of workload management of players. The bigger test for Dravid’s cricketing acumen would be rotation of players in different formats.
As in the past few years, barring 2020 due to Covid, the calendar is packed for India. Two other teams that play as much cricket as India are England and Australia. But they have different teams for Tests and T20Is and the multi-format specialists are encouraged to sit out of games. The packed calendar has also led to a number of top players opting out due to mental fatigue or burnout. Virat Kohli, who gave up his T20 captaincy, was rested for the series, as was Kiwi captain Kane Williamson. It is not humanly possible to give your best close to 200 days a year. Perhaps, it’s time for the BCCI to look into the packed schedule and strategise to preserve players—and even look at having different teams for different formats. Like most things in this universe, too much cricket can be injurious as well.