During the third ODI in the ongoing England tour, Bhuvneshwar Kumar suffered a back injury once again which has raised the big questions on the roles of Indian team physio Patrick Farhart and trainer Shankar Basu.
The right-arm Indian pacer has been suffering from the back issue since the IPL 2018 and recently missed few limited-overs matches in the ongoing UK tour.
After receiving another injury in the third ODI at Leeds on Tuesday, where he made a comeback after missing out three consecutive limited-overs matches (one T20I and two ODIs), Kumar has been ruled out from the upcoming first three Tests of the five-match Test series in the English tour.
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The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) is not happy with the recent fitness issues of Kumar as some of them were surprised on Kumar’s selection for the third ODI while the pacer was not fully fit.
When a senior BCCI official was asked about Kumar’s injury, he said, “Please go and ask Ravi Shastri that question. The moment we are saying he has aggravated his injury, we are conceding that he wasn’t fully fit. So if he is a vital cog in our Test match scheme of things, why was he risked for an ODI.”
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The BCCI official has raised few questions on Patrick Farhart and Shankar Basu as they believe that the update of Kumar’s injury wasn’t proper.
He said, “If you look at IPL, Bhuvi missed five out of 17 games for Sunrisers. The BCCI had asked the franchise to look after his workload management. Then he was rested for Afghanistan Test so that he gets time to recover for UK tour. But it seems something is amiss and that’s quite baffling.”
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The official was also unhappy with the team management’s decision to allow Kumar to play the third ODI as his fitness was still questionable.
The official said, “There are some questions that the team management needs to answer. If despite being given rest during the third T20 and the first two ODIs, he wasn’t hundred percent fit, then why was he allowed to play.
“Secondly, did Farhart report before the third ODI that playing him would be risking his injury?”
