Reports: BCCI to ask franchises to rest World Cup-bound players for IPL 2023 season

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has set its eyes on the 2023 ODI World Cup and had a review meeting where a roadmap was discussed on how to approach the marquee tournament.

According to the reports, BCCI might ask IPL franchises to rest World Cup-bound players for IPL 2023 season in order to keep them fully fit ahead of the ODI World Cup.

BCCI concerned about fitness of injury-prone players

The BCCI had convened the performance review meeting of the Indian cricket team on January 1. The whole idea behind this meeting was to get a clear roadmap ahead of the 2023 ODI World Cup and World Test Championship.

Team India faced a humiliating loss against England in the semi-final of the 2022 T20 World Cup after which it was quite necessary for the BCCI to take some tough actions. The Indian team missed some key players like Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Deepak Chahar due to injuries which affected Team India’s World Cup campaign and hence the focus has shifted towards fitness and workload management.

Now, reports have claimed that the top cricketing body might ask franchises to rotate or rest World Cup-bound players who are prone to injuries in order to keep these players fit for the marquee tournament. The BCCI will now seek to find a balance so that these players remain fully fit while IPL doesn’t get diluted as well.

“It is a hassle and it is not at the same time. Players make IPL the best and not franchises. So, it’s important to take care of them. No one would want another Deepak Chahar or Shreyas Iyer to miss the entire IPL. They are important for the IPL brand. But, at the same time, we will have to carefully manage their workload so that they don’t suffer injuries. That may involve resting them or utilizing them carefully to manage workload,” a franchise official was quoted as saying by InsideSport.

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It will be interesting to see how all the franchise will react to this proposal as keeping players 100% fit for the ICC tournaments is vital for the team’s cause.