Injuries raise questions on workload management of physios

Umesh Yadav

Navdeep Saini's breakdown after bowling only 7.5 overs due to a groin injury on the Day One of the fourth Test has raised some serious questions about the work done by national team's trainers and physios.

As the Australian tour hits its business end, the Indian team's list of injuries will make it very difficult for new national selection committee to pick a decent bowling attack for the England Test series.

While injuries can be can be segregated into two categories trauma and fitness related, it is the latter that will warrant a few tough questions being put forth to the two physios and the couple of strength and conditioning experts who are with the team Down Under.

Major concerns
If pure fitness and injury management section is concerned, Umesh Yadav broke down having bowled in less than four completed innings in two Test matches while Saini has walked off having bowled only 36.5 overs in one game and one session to be precise.

Senior physio Nitin Patel and his understudy Yogesh Parmar along with strength and conditioning coach Nick Webb and Shum Desai might have to field some tough questions as to why there's been so many breakdowns. "No one is questioning [Mohd] Shami, [Jasprit] Bumrah or [R] Jadeja's injury as they are trauma related. But why would a Umesh Yadav, who barely played any IPL matches or Navdeep Saini, who didn't bowl on this tour much after first two ODIs [save day-night warm-up game] broke down without even bowling 40 overs," a senior physio, who has worked with a lot of top Indian players in the past, questioned.

Pressure on BCCI
In fact, in BCCI corridors, people are expecting that president Sourav Ganguly would pose some tough questions. "It's high time that Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah ask a few questions because this is happening too often," a senior BCCI source said.