The Indian cricket team is dealing with an unprecedented injury crisis lately.
The Indian cricket team faces an unprecedented injury crisis lately with several key players undergoing rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE), severely disrupting team balance and squad selections across formats.
According to a latest TOI report, the Bengaluru-based facility has treated as many as 32 top men's Indian cricketers over the past year or so. The number of players visiting the centre reportedly spiked after the previous Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
To address this growing player fitness crisis, the board has dramatically expanded its injury management operations, increasing the CoE's budget by nearly Rs 35 crore to a total allocation of Rs 127 crore for the ongoing fiscal year.
The report further stated that the BCCI has put renewed focus on its injury management programme at the CoE, with head coach Gautam Gambhir and Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill pushing for changes due to frequent breakdowns across series and heavy workloads from the IPL and international calendar.
Even top veterans like Rohit Sharma (treated for a hamstring issue post-IPL) and Virat Kohli required rehabilitation periods at the CoE.
High-profile names such as Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, and Prasidh Krishna have visited the centre frequently, but the report didn't mention the number of times they've had to check in for rehab.
In total, 68 players across genders were managed by the CoE Sports Science Medicine (SSM) team over the last 20 months. Most cases involved soft-tissue injuries, alongside isolated impact cases like Rishabh Pant's foot fracture in July 2025.
The surge in injuries has exposed structural vulnerabilities within the board's medical network. The critical post of Head of Sports Science and Medicine at the CoE has remained completely vacant since March 2025, forcing the BCCI to only recently issue public advertisements to fill the role.
(With TOI Inputs)