In a recent meeting, the Indian team management and the Committee of Administrators (CoA) has come out with an important decision to rest the key players to assure their availabilities in the key near future contests like the upcoming Australia tour or 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England.
A source told The Indian Express, “The two major issues discussed in the meeting had been about how to win in Australia and how to win the World Cup.”
The players’ rotation policy is one of the key processes in this structure, which has already started. The source claimed that it is not just about rotating the players, it is more important to save the key players before the important contests.
The source claimed, “With an eye to that, the main focus was how to rotate players. In fact, more than rotation, it would be more about how to save our key players. That’s why you would see the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Mohammad Shami in and out of the squad, not playing regularly. The players who are important for all formats will be adequately taken care of. Going ahead also, these things will keep happening.”
While the Indian skipper Virat Kohli was rested in the Asia Cup 2018, the front-line Indian pacers have been used in rotation wise as some new pacers are getting good opportunities to showcase their talents.
Meanwhile, the CoA also spoke about the issue of having limited-overs series prior to the Test series during overseas tours. While India had the three-match T20I and ODI series respectively before the five-match Test series in England, India will play a three-match T20I series in Australia before the four-match Test series and then will conclude the tour with another three-match ODI series.
The statement from CoA claimed, “The BCCI ensured that in England. In Australia, it was slightly tough because of the Boxing Day Test. Still the BCCI managed that three T20 internationals would be played before the Test series and then the three ODIs.”
CoA also spoke about their denial to play the day/night Test match during the upcoming Australia tour as they don’t want to be put the team in an unfamiliar situation suddenly.
It said, “Adelaide is our best chance (because of the nature of the Adelaide Oval surface) and it’s the first Test match. And suddenly we don’t want to be in a situation we are not familiar with. That’s the reason why we refused it play it and even the Cricket Australia was nice and understood that. For them it was more of a commercial reason that they wanted to do it.”
