Australia coach Justin Langer has on Wednesday (January 13) blamed the delayed Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 for so many injuries that occurred during Australia's blockbuster series with India at home.
IPL 2020 normally begins in March, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s biggest T20 extravaganza along with other global sporting events was postponed and held August-November last year in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Then, players from both team Australia and India had to undergo 14-day quarantine with the one-day series starting almost immediately after they were allowed out to train for the mega-series.
The ongoing Australia-India Test and limited-overs series has seen a lot of players getting injured from both teams including the likes of David Warner, Marcus Stoinis, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja. Though, Warne returned for the Test series against India.
Langer said: “It's really interesting how many injuries there have been throughout this summer. We suffered through it during the white-ball series and (India) through the Test series.”
The coach further added, “We'll review this, but I can't help think that the IPL this year probably wasn't ideal timing for anyone, certainly for such a big series like this. I love the IPL. I look at the IPL now like I used to look at (English) county cricket for young players, you go and play county cricket and it helps their development enormously.”
He signed off by saying, “I think it's the same with the IPL with our players; it helps their white-ball development. But the timing of it ... probably wasn't ideal and I wonder if that's having an impact on the injuries we are seeing for both teams throughout this summer.”
(With AFP Inputs)
