The world of sports suffered a huge hit in 2020. Almost all games were canceled, what used to be stadiums and fields filled with players and roaring fans were immediately silent and empty. Lease and seasons were suspended and other sports, like the Indian Premier League, were forced to take the games out of their home country just to be able to continue it and not delay it further. With that being said, the return of the games was not easy for the players. Losing a lot of time and the pressure of catching up on schedule as much as possible meant that they needed to play more games in closer gaps than they were used to and less rest for the teams. For the players and the coaches, this meant more exhaustion.
With the new season of the Indian Premier League, the upcoming IPL 2021, talks about possible auctions, who’s going to which team, IPL 2021 betting, odds, and predictions are starting to make their rounds online. With that in mind, a coach is calling for a much-needed “break” for players once they get done with the upcoming season. India’s national cricket team coach Ravi Shastri is calling for at least two weeks of a break after the IPL 2021, citing the long calendar of activities for the players ahead of them. To date, they have been continuously playing since August 2020, taking only a short hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
With the “new normal;” applying even to sports, the changes and adjustments in the way games are played also play a factor in the toll that it gives to players.
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“I do believe you need a break from international cricket at some point. After the England series, yes, they go into the IPL. Again, after the IPL, a couple of weeks off is a must. Because in these quarantines, in these bubbles, it is mentally draining. You are a human, at the end of it all,” Ravi Shastri said in an interview.
However, the need for a break is not because of burnout, or that Shastri and his team are “tired” of playing games. According to him, the driver to play the game and be out there in the field would always be there. Ultimately, this break that he is asking for would only serve as a sort of “recharging time” for the team.
“As far as this team goes, this team takes pride in its performance. we will take it one step at a time. Every series is important. Every format is important. And we have got the volume of players, we have the bench strength to accommodate across all formats. So, there will be the hunger to perform,” Shastri added.
About the IPL 2021
As of now, rumors had it that the upcoming IPL season would start on April 11, 2021. Should the rumors about the April 11 start date be true, this would mean that there would only be a gap of two weeks between the India and England series before the IPL 2021 finally begins.
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Before it starts, part of the process of preparations is the auctioning, where teams get to reshuffle their lineup of players. There would be buy-ins, trades, players moving from one team to another, and players getting signed for another season with their current team. Aside from the game itself, the trades and auctions are other things that fans love to look forward to and speculate on, as the result of it would deliver a new and fresh dynamic to the teams and the entire League as a whole.
