India lost the third and final ODI against Australia in Chennai on Wednesday (March 23) by 21 runs and thereby also went down in the series by 2-1 margin. With the international home season concluded, all the players will now be seen in action in the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that is scheduled to commence on March 31. Amidst all this, there has been a lot of scrutiny over recent injuries to key players like Shreyas Iyer, Jasprit Bumrah while Rishabh Pant is also missing since the turn of the year.
Moreover, with two months of IPL to be followed by the World Test Championship Final in June, there is a possibility of more players getting injured. Speaking of the same after the match in the press conference, Rohit Sharma stated that the guidelines have been shared with all IPL franchises but it is up to them and the players now to follow it or not. He also went on to say that the players should know the state of their body and they will have to communicate accordingly.
"It's all up to the franchise now. Franchises own them now. We've given them some indications or some kind of border line kind of things to teams. But at the end of the day, it's up to the franchises and most importantly it's the players. They have to take care of their own body. They are all adults. So they have to look after their body and adjust if they feel like it's getting a little too much, they can always talk about it and have a break in 1-2 games. I doubt that'll happen but," Rohit said.
Rohit Sharma admitted that the frequent injuries to players is concerning but also assured that the medical team of BCCI is working hard behind the scenes. With 2023 being the World Cup year, India will be looking to get some of their key players fit in time for the mega event. "Look it is concerning because if the players are not available it is concerning. And we are missing players who are actually Playing XI players. They regularly play in the playing XI. Honestly, everyone is trying their best to get everyone on the park.
"We've been focussing a lot on management of the players a lot. Which is why you keep seeing, we have to rest certain players at certain points of time. From our side we could do our best in terms of handling them. I mean, I'm not a specialist to tell you why the recurring injuries are happening. Of course the medical team of ours is definitely looking into all of this and making sure that come the World Cup we've got our best 15 players ready," he added.
"Obviously, when you play so much cricket, injuries are bound to happen. So not looking too much into it, what's available to you, what's in your hand you can control that. Not looking too much into what's available to you, what's in your hand you can control that. We're just trying to control all of that. Players are frustrated as well. They want to play, they don't want to miss out. It is a little sad but at the end of the day, you cannot really do much. I can see and can vouch for it that the people working behind the scenes are working really hard with all these players. Freakish injury can happen at any time. Shreyas was the best example. He was sitting the whole day, and he just went to take a knock and the injury happened to him. There's nothing you could do about it. I mean the only thing we can keep in mind is managing players and giving them enough weeks and I think from our side we're doing that," Rohit further said.
