Bhuvneshwar Kumar may miss the second leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL) owing to feel fresh at the all-important ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England. The IPL is scheduled to start from March 23 in Chennai while the final’s date is yet to be announced.
World Cup will begin from May 30 with the opening match is scheduled between hosts England and South Africa. Indian players will get lesser time to turn their head towards the multi-nation tournament. India’s first warm-up game will be against New Zealand on May 25 and the opening match against South Africa on June 5.
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Earlier, Indian captain Virat Kohli appealed Indian players to be smart about their workload during the IPL. “The amount you practice, with the amount of travel during the IPL and the number of games in different conditions, in different temperatures, it is going to be challenging, to be honest,” he said.
“But as a cricketer, you have to map out how many practice sessions you really need. If you are hitting the ball well, there is no need to go to a practice session and tire yourself out for three hours whereas you can utilize that particular phase to rest and recover even more.”
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Bhuvneshwar backed his captain’s word and will get an appropriate break in order to take the full amount of rest. “That [workload management] is something that’s there in all of our minds. We have to manage everything. We cannot decide how much we are going to play or workload management,” Bhuvi said.
“It will come into play after the first half of IPL. [After] six-seven matches, we can know how we can approach the second-half of IPL and what we need to do to remain fit for the World Cup. Yes, it (World Cup) is there on our minds but we’ll look after (out fitness) in the second-half of IPL.”
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Bhuvneshwar is one of the key players of his IPL franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad. He believes that the franchises will understand and make room for any such special requests coming their way, and reckons BCCI might get in touch with them asking for the same too.
“There isn’t a surety for anything. Yes, there is something which is in mind, if I feel that I am tired, then we can take rest. Of course, it is up to the franchise. I am sure they will cooperate with each and every player because the World Cup is a very important thing for us and BCCI may also talk to them. This is something which is in mind, no surety that we’re going to take rest and we’re not going to play, but we’ll see after the first round of games,” he concluded.
Apart from the Indian players, Australian players are expected to miss a certain part of the IPL. Cricket Australia (CA) is a bit cautious with their players are lined up to play a huge amount of cricket.
