Former Indian cricketer Vivek Razdan has asked for patience amid the injury crisis and criticism directed at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) before the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan. Team India suffered a string of injuries after the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 campaign, with the crisis becoming worse during the Ireland and England white-ball tours as well. At one point, as many as 13 players were recovering from their injuries at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru as well.
“It (The injuries) is certainly a big cause for worry, because you don’t wish anyone to be injured, as it impacts the balance of the team. There’s a year left now for the ODI World Cup, right? And you would wish to include and feature those players who will be part of the final squad. I also wish to add one thing because I don’t use social media much, but I get to see and hear things from here and there, we tend to rush into these things quite quickly. Somewhere I saw NCA being criticised, that players are being injured after being cleared. It is important to understand one thing, the NCA has always played a big role, and this is a beloved child of the BCCI,” Vivek Razdan said during a select media interaction organised by Sony Sports Network.
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“When you see a beloved child, you see who they assign to handle it. For many years it was Rahul Dravid in charge, and now it is VVS Laxman who heads the institute. So these are players you cannot raise a finger at. The work that these two have done while playing and after playing, they have always done it in the interest of Indian cricket. So, sometimes we have to be patient. Whenever we observe players during commentary, we also feel that a lot of injuries are happening and often the ideal playing XI is not on the field because of it. But it is a process, injuries will keep happening,” Vivek Razdan further shared.
“Considering the amount of cricket played yearly now, there is no off-season for these players. The injured players and the kind of injuries that happen to them, look at the pace at which they bowl. At one time, we used to be crazy for pace, we never used to see bowlers bowl at this pace consistently, so we have to be patient. So, work is being done, but the people who are handling this have great cricketing knowledge, so we have to believe and trust the process,” Vivek Razdan concluded.
