Erstwhile India cricketer and ex-coach of the Indian Cricket Team, Ravi Shastri has come out to speak against the ill effects that the IPL is having on India’s international cricket.
The Indian Premier League versus National cricket debate has become more heated than ever, with people thinking IPL has slowly taken precedence over paramount cricket in national colors.
Interestingly, the origin of the heat is the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and now Deepak Chahar from the 2022 T20 World Cup squad of Team India.
Since his debut for the Men in Blue, Bumrah has missed just 1 game for Mumbai Indians in the IPL while missing a staggering 131 GAMES (69 T20Is, 48 ODIs and 14 tests) for India.
During the reign of Ravi Shastri as the Indian coach, Chahar was hardly available for international games (he still isn’t) and Hardik Pandya lacked bowling fitness owing to the demanding schedule of the Indian Premier League.
Bhuvi too had missed 2 tours of NZ and England due to fitness issues. Those were countries where India’s Swing King would have excelled, feels Shastri.
Ravi Shastri on October 12 quoted at an event organized by Mumbai Press Club (MPC) “It was the most frustrating thing for me as ( Team India coach), losing key players to injuries. We toured ENG and NZ twice. On all those tours, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was injured. He’d have got a bagful of wickets with his (swing) skills”.
Ravi Shastri offers BOLD advice to new BCCI president
Roger Binny is set to be the new leader of the BCCI and ahead of his tenure as President, Shastri has urged him to make some tough calls.
“The volume of cricket that exists today, it is extremely important that you get the balance right of how much a player plays (IPL and int’l combined) When should he be rested? There, a BCCI president can play a big role”.
Ravi Shastri further added if a cricketer has to skip IPL to be fit for international assignments for Team India, so be it.
Offering a BOLD advice to prez-to-be Roger Binny, he quoted “Tomorrow, if a cricketer for the sake of playing for India needs to be rested in the IPL for a certain number of games, so be it.”
“The BCCI president (Roger Binny) has to sit with the IPL franchise(s) and explain he is extremely important for India first and then the franchise.”
Ravi Shastri feels franchises should understand that playing for Team India in national colors is the pinnacle. Everything else takes a back seat.
However, the process of conveying the msg to the teams should be polite and courteous and should be done by the BCCI president himself.
Shastri’s stand matters, here’s why!
KL Rahul played all of the 2022 IPL before being out of action due to his Sports Hernia, Bumrah got ruled out of the 2022 T20 WC despite playing just 5 internationals since 2021 T20WC and Deepak is also set to miss the T20WC 2022.
Hardik too is rested every 3rd game to keep him fit for the World Cup.
Hence, action has to be taken to make sure international cricket for India remains the grandest stage of them all unaffected by the IPL.
Ravi Shastri shouting out loud that new BCCI prez Roger Binny should make things right is a huge step in the right direction. Because no other former cricketer has the courage to do so.