The Indian cricket team faces an unprecedented injury crisis lately.
The BCCI on Thursday (September 3) conducted a performance review meeting to address India's recent overseas struggles and mounting player workload/injuries.
Following the meeting, BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia spoke to the media, revealing that the board has chalked out a strategy to restructure the Future Tours Programme (FTP) to ensure adequate rest and acclimatisation ahead of tours to SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia).
The meeting was also attended by India’s Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill, T20I captain Shreyas Iyer, head coach Gautam Gambhir, Centre of Excellence (CoE) chief VVS Laxman and top board officials at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.
The Men in Blue’s recent overseas setbacks included a 0-2 T20I series loss to Ireland and a 0-4 T20I/1-2 ODI series defeat against England.
"Yes, we did not do well. You all know that we lost matches in Ireland and also in England in the T20 and ODI; we also lost by 2-1, so we wanted to know what the reasons are. We have to do certain soul-searching about that, and in future, what we will be doing before going to any of the SENA countries; we have chalked out some strategy on that," Saikia said.
The Indian cricket team faces an unprecedented injury crisis with several key players undergoing rehabilitation at the BCCI CoE, severely disrupting team balance and squad selections across formats.
The injured list of players includes Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, among others.
Saikia acknowledged that a heavy schedule of matches, such as two months of the IPL followed by international series like the one in England, causes high injury rates and said efforts are being made to find ways to manage player workload within the existing windows and FTPs.
"Individually players are having injuries because they are they have to play lot of matches if you look at their schedule if you look at in England we have 15 players team went for the ODI and out of that 15 three four players got injured during the match but we have to think about they have played two months of IPL prior to that so all this takes toll on the health of the players also and to avoid those kind of situations what best we can do under the present windows and present FTP's we are trying to find out some ways out," he added.
Saikia made it clear that the review meeting focused on general team fitness policies rather than targeting any individual player.
"There was no discussion on any individual player today this was today's discussion was totally general in nature and what policy and what protocols we have to maintain regarding maintaining the fitness level of every player not any individual and what is best interest of the team we have considered that only and we have taken the feedbacks from the captains and the head coach who are the right persons to give us the information so that we chalk up a proper strategy to avoid all these kind of unwanted situations during any international or bilateral matches," he said.
Saikia confirmed the BCCI plans to restructure upcoming cricket calendars to prioritize player health and reduce frequent injuries during demanding overseas tours.
"Everybody is on the same page BCCI is working in a very well like a well-oiled engine there is proper coordination amongst all the wings of BCCI whether it is women's team committees or their technical staff or their coaches vis-a-vis the COE vis-a-vis the Indian men's team's coaching staff and the head coach there is no difficulty in the coordination everything is moving in the right direction the only challenges which we are facing is that there are too many matches in the year and that is why in the next FTP we'll do certain things we'll take certain measures we have instructed our FTP persons who will be meeting very soon in various international forums that our FTP should be in such a way it should be scheduled that there is proper rest for the players as well as some kind of acclimatization or some kind of friendly matches before any major series in SENA countries," he said.
Saikia also revealed that chief selector Ajit Agarkar missed the review meeting because the board called it on short notice while he was out of town and unable to connect online.
"Today he was out of station he could not be a part of the meeting because it was this meeting was called at a very short notice and our head of the selection committee Ajit he was not in town so he could not join it and he was in such area that he could not join online also in spite of our best efforts today," he stated.
India's immediate assignments include the 2026 Asian Games men's campaign, a three-match T20I series against Afghanistan in Delhi, and a three-T20I and five-match ODI series against West Indies at home.
Subsequently, the team will play five T20Is, five ODIs, and two Tests against New Zealand in an away assignment, three ODIs and three T20Is at home against Sri Lanka, three ODIs and three T20Is at home against Zimbabwe, and a five-Test series against Australia, also at home.
Saikia said the BCCI would take necessary measures to ensure the best facilities for India's players and support staff at the Asian Games.
"There is no such issue which we have discussed or which is in our agenda today or prior to today also so we are not going to have any difficulties in Japan if any kind of situation arises we'll take a appropriate call at the right time and so that we ensure that our players and the support staff will get the best of facilities in Asian Games whether it is from their organizers if required BCCI will have its own system in place to provide the best facilities to our players," he remarked.
(With ANI Inputs)