With the 2019 ICC World Cup just months away and IPL 2019 starting on March 23, there are many voices that are saying that Indian team management should rest the World Cup-bound fast bowlers before the mega ICC event.
However, contrary to popular beliefs, former India fast bowler and now Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling coach Ashish Nehra has said that doing so will be a wrong thought process.
Nehra has insisted the fast bowlers play 8-10 matches in IPL 2019 as he believes match practice is necessary for the pacers.
"... I think it is a wrong thought-process to rest the World Cup-bound fast bowlers during the IPL. Lohey ko zang lag jaata hai [Iron gets rusted]. No matter how much training you do, you need match practice. If a bowler himself feels he needs rest then that is a different matter. In my view, they should play 8-10 IPL games. It will be helpful for the World Cup," Nehra told The Mumbai Mirror.
"You can get injured any time, not only during the IPL. In the 2011 World Cup, I got injured in the semi-final against Pakistan. You can get injured in practice too. Or even in the first match of the World Cup. We will have a couple of weeks between the IPL and the World Cup, which is sufficient to recover from niggles," he added.
Indian team management has taken a step in their process of managing workloads of fast bowlers, by resting Jasprit Bumrah, who was the main architect of India’s Test series win in Australia.
"We did not have good backups. Only two-three good bowlers. There was talent though. RP Singh, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel were good Test bowlers for a while. I was struggling with injuries. Ajit Agarkar was doing well in patches. The likes of Debasis Mohanty, Tinu Yohannan, Harvinder Singh came in, but were not able to establish themselves, so there was flux," Nehra added.
"I tell you had we fast bowlers not had the kind of injuries we had, India would have won the series in England in 2002 that we drew 1-1. In Pakistan in 2003-04, Zaheer Khan got injured but Irfan Pathan and L Balaji did well, and we won the series against a very good side,” said Nehra.
Nehra also pointed out that the current India pace attack is finding a lot of success due to the availability of backup options.
Nehra said, "Now the pack of five-six fast bowlers are all bowling well at the same time. They are fitter too. Of course, you will not often get the stats they got last year, because they played on such helpful pitches in South Africa and England. Now even bowlers such as Umesh and Bhuvneshwar are confined to the bench."
(with inputs from indiatoday.in)
