Ahead of IPL 2023, it looks highly possible that Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will lose their captain Shreyas Iyer to back injury for the season. Iyer has had his difficulties with the back injury in the recent past. The India batter has opted out of the surgery but is set to miss at least the first half of the league, reported ESPNcricinfo. The KKR skipper continues to work on his rehab. He is not the only cricketer out with an injury. Rishabh Pant aside (his injuries to do with a car accident), in the last year or so, Indian cricketers have allen prey to injuries at regular interval. The list includes Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Iyer, Deepak Chahar, KL Rahul. Their absence hurt India in key tournaments like Asia Cup, ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has come out strongly on the matter related to injuries, asking BCCI to act upon the serious matter of players getting injured every now and then. He even said that BCCI should ask players to skip IPL if it helps to manage workload.
“I find it hard to imagine (increase in injuries). You look at era we played in, the facilities that were available at that time. You found players playing 8-10 years easily. Lot of them would play 8-10 months of the year. I really don’t know.. probably the volume of cricket has increased, no questions about that. There are different leagues around the world. The rest period is decreasing,” Shastri said while speaking to Sports Yaari on the sidelines of the Legends League Cricket in Doha.
Bumrah has not played a single game since July 2021 due to his back injury. He made comebacks twice, but on both the occasions, selectors made last-minute replacements for him. Shastri feels the board must act now and tell IPL franchises to give up their interests for India’s sake.
“The establishment and players will have to sit across the table. You need that much cricket and you need to give certain break. Even if it happens to be IPL. Board has to take the stand there, tell the franchises, ‘listen, we need them. India need them. For India’s sake, if he doesn’t play those games, it will be good’,” Shastri concluded.