Former India head coach Ravi Shastri is fuming with the continuing injury woes of Indian cricketers in recent times. The latest casualty has been Deepak Chahar of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who walked off after bowling the first over of the innings against Mumbai Indians last week.
He is set to undergo scans and a possible hamstring injury that could rule him out of the season. Notably, he made a comeback to competitive cricket from February 2022 after a series of injuries.
Shreyas Iyer also fits into the same category in that his back often troubles him and he is already missing IPL 2023. He will also miss the WTC final where India face Australia and race to be fit for the ODI World Cup later this year.
Pointing to the same, Ravi Shastri expressed his dismay over the matter saying that some of the players are literally permanent residents of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. He also told that some cricketers do not even play much cricket but get injured as soon as they return to the field.
“In the last three-four years, there are quite a few who are permanent residents of NCA. Soon they will get resident permits there as well. It is not a good thing at all. It is unrealistic. You are not playing enough cricket that times -Injury again. You can’t play 4 matches in a row. What are you going to NCA for?” Shastri said while talking to ESPNCricinfo ahead of the CSK vs RR clash.
“If you are going to come back and in three matches you are back there. Make sure you get fit and come back forever, because it is disappointing not only for the team, the players, the BCCI, the captains of the different teams. I can understand a serious injury but every fourth game when someone touches their hamstring or someone touches their groin, you start wondering what these guys are training for. Some of them don’t play any other cricket It is ridiculous,” Shastri said.