Rohit Sharma feels the onus lies on each IPL team owners and players themselves to handle workload ahead of the ODI World Cup scheduled to be held in October-November
Rohit Sharma (Pic Courtesy: AP)
Team India have been ravaged by injuries to several regulars throughout the year, yet captain Rohit Sharma suspects any player will opt out of the IPL games to manage workload when the high-profile T20 league begins on March 31.
From Jasprit Bumrah to Shreyas Iyer, injury woes surrounding the Indian unit have become an area of concern for the team management. Sharma feels the onus lies on each IPL team owners and players themselves to handle workload ahead of the ODI World Cup scheduled to be held in October-November.
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"It is concerning. We are missing the players who are actually the playing XI players," Rohit told the media after India lost the third ODI against Australia by 21 runs on Wednesday.
"They (players) are all adults. So they have to look after their body and just if they feel that it's getting a little too much, they can always talk about it and have a break in one or two games. I doubt (if) that will happen but...," he further said.
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The Men in Blue will get little over a week to gear up for the World Test Championships final to be played at the Oval in London from June 7, following the IPL. Sharma revealed that the team management has given ‘indications’ to all franchise owners about smooth workload management of the players, keeping the World Cup in mind.
"It's all up to the franchises now. The franchises own them (the players) now, so we've given some indications or some kind of borderline kind of thing to the teams. At the end of the day it's up to the franchise and, most importantly, it's the players, they have to take care of their own body."
"Honestly, everyone is trying their best to get everyone on the park. We've been focusing a lot on management of the players, which is why we have to rest certain players at certain points of time," the captain said.
"From our side, we could do our best in terms of handling them. But, I am not a specialist to tell you why recurring injuries are happening. The medical team of ours is looking into all of this and making sure that, come the World Cup, we've got our best 15 players ready."
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Team India have missed the services of Bumrah for the entire bilateral series against Australia, Iyer’s recurring back injury has forever been a cause of worry for the side. The right-handed batter initially felt discomfort on his lower back last December and was ruled out of the ODI series against New Zealand at home and the opening Test against Australia.
Iyer, who leads Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, is also likely to miss some games due to the recurring injury. "Obviously when you play so much cricket injuries are bound to happen. So not looking too much into it, what's available to you, what's in your hand, you can control that, and we are just trying to control all of that. Players are frustrated as well. They want to play, they don't want to miss out. So it's a little sad, but at the end of the day, you cannot really do too much,” Rohit said.
Adding further that the medical team is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the well being of the players, he stated: "I can see, and I can vouch for it, that the people working behind the scenes are working really hard with all these players, and freakish injury can happen at any point in time, like Shreyas (Iyer) was the best example. He was sitting the whole day and he just went to take a knock and the injury happened to him. And there's nothing you could do about it, the only thing we can keep in mind is managing players and giving them enough breaks. And I think from our side we're doing that."
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