It is a well known secret that the Indian team is the most overworked players amongst all the cricket playing nations. They are constantly involved in an away series or a home series or in the IPL. I have said this before but I will say it again that this sort of madness, a schedule that treats the players like a log of woods to the fire will break the players down at some point and that they need constant rest to rehabilitate and to work of their game. BCCI never cared about the players. Even with a former Indian captain and a successful one that at the helm. Now, Rohit Sharma has finally spoken.
Poor scheduling for the New Zealand series
India and New Zealand have started a new series. This is barely 3 days after the World T20 finished. The Indian players as we all know were involved in an intensely competitive series in England that was followed by the IPL and the World T20. They were in the bubble throughout and were in the bubble during most of the time before the England series. The players are tired and jaded. They were not treated well. Mad scheduling, constant travel, bio-bubble, hotel rooms, untimely food etc will take their toll. As a result some of the Indian players have taken a break from the New Zealand series. Kohli, Bumrah, Shami to name a few.
The players pretty well knew that the board does not care for them and they have to care for themselves and have rightly taken a break though I wish they had skipped IPL instead of playing for the country.
A start nevertheless a start has been made
Rohit Sharma, the new Indian T20 captain has finally spoken.
“Workload management is very important to us. Players are not machines. Taking time off is necessary,” Sharma said at a virtual press conference, with India’s new coach Rahul Dravid at his side.
“Some players who have been playing for long need to be rested to remain fresh. We want all our boys to be mentally fresh for the challenges ahead,” he added.
Will the former players have the backbone to speak against the board?
Yes, Rohit responded to a question about the need for breaks. He may not have blamed the board for scheduling excessive cricket but he may well have had a hint. Perhaps, in his mind he was thinking about the board. This was least expected but it is a good start. I hope more and more players will start to air the opinion about unrestrained cricket. The former players like Gavaskar, Sachin, Dhoni must talk. They must voice their views. They must bat for the present cricketers. Afterall, they have earned enough and do not need the board to support them in any way. Things must change in this country. The board cannot be left to run things on their own. They will one day end up destroying the very thing that they built.
The Ashes
On the other end of the spectrum, The Ashes will be underway in about a month. England will tour with their best available team and Australia have just announced their team for the first and second tests. Australia will most probably play their best attack in the series. They would not want to surrender the urn that they fought so gallantly in England a couple of years ago, that easily.
The best attack comprises of Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon. If England aren’t that positive, this attack will wallop them quickly. However, the trouble is what if England batsmen bat exceptionally well? What if Root who is in supreme form, continues from where he left off against India and scores tons of runs in the series? That is when the limitation of this attack will be exposed. Starc generally starts well in every series and his strike rate drastically tapers off towards the end of the series. Cummins is an asset and Australia just cannot afford to burn him and will want him to play for another 7-8 years.
Struggle against India
Australia really felt the pain of having the same attack last year against India. During the 4th test, especially after Vihari and Ashwin’s heroics at Sydney, the same attack lost all the energy and surrendered the fortress at Gabba. Root has learned from that and he infact has said that England will look to follow the Indian template. In a longer series, rotating the bowlers will prove vital in the end. Ofcourse that depends on how long does the English batsmen bat. If they score anywhere near 450 in every test, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon will be extremely tired even before the 4th test.