Delhi Capitals’ Director of Cricket and former BCCI Chairman, Sourav Ganguly, has expressed his confidence that players selected for the World Test Championship (WTC) final will be able to manage their workload throughout the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season.
The final of the WTC is set to take place just over a week after the IPL concludes, with India facing Australia in England. There have been concerns about player workload management, with the National Cricket Academy reportedly providing each team with a player list and workload portfolio to monitor the fitness and workload of players in contention for the national squad.
Ganguly believes that players will cope with the workload, pointing out that they will have a 10-day break following the IPL. He also indicated that the workload management portfolio given to each IPL team doesn’t provide specific instructions on how to treat players selected for international duty. Instead, players will be stopped from playing if they are carrying any injury.
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Indian captain Rohit Sharma agrees that the franchises will have the final say in whether they will be playing any players in any particular condition. However, Sharma pointed out that players also have some autonomy in this matter, as they can request a 1-2 game break when required.
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It’s worth noting that the Indian team is already dealing with long-term injuries to several key players, including Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, and Shreyas Iyer, who will not represent India in the WTC final in June. Furthermore, players need to remain fit for the ODI World Cup scheduled for October-November. While BCCI would want all players who are in the plans for the teams in the WTC final and the World Cup to remain fit for the next few months, the players’ workload management remains crucial.
In conclusion, Ganguly and Sharma’s remarks highlight the need for effective player workload management during the IPL 2023 season, especially for players set to participate in the WTC final and the ODI World Cup. IPL franchises and the BCCI will have to work together to ensure that the players are not overworked and that they are in good physical and mental shape for the upcoming international matches. The players themselves also have a responsibility to monitor their workload and ask for breaks when necessary to avoid burnout or injury.