BCCI secretary Saikia to visit COE to take stock of injury crisis
Concerned with the spate of injuries that has rocked Indian team of late, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia will be meeting Head of Cricket of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) VVS Laxman on Sunday to take stock of the rehabilitation management programme at the Centre of Excellence (COE).
India will be missing the services of Jasprit Bumrah (knee swelling), B Sai Sudharsan (left foot big toe), Harshit Rana (hamstring), Nitish Kumar Reddy (hamstring) and Washington Sundar (quadriceps) due to various injuries. Akash Deep (lower back stress fracture) has been out for the longest time since Bengal’s Ranji Trophy semi-final defeat.
Adding to that, white ball experts Hardik Pandya (quadriceps), Varun Chakravarthy (hamstring) and Prince Yadav (hamstring) are also at the Centre of Excellence, where the Sports Science team is overworked without a figurehead since the resignation of Nitin Patel in early 2025. Right now the challenge is to get all these players back on the park.
Sudharsan and Bumrah were enlisted in the squad subject to fitness but COE’s team of experts decided to exercise caution looking at the bigger picture.
“Yes, secretary Saikia will be in Bengaluru to take a stock of the situation along with VVS Laxman. There is a meeting scheduled between the two. It is not known whether head coach of the national team, Gautam Gambhir or chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar, will join online or not.
It will be interesting if both Saikia and Laxman can front up and answer a few media queries with so many conjectures,” a BCCI source in the know told PTI on conditions of anonymity. There are also rumours that COE and the current selection committee has always not been in sync with regards to the injury management timelines and some of the players being released before they ticked all the boxes. The issue of Harshit Rana reaching England after being distinctly overweight has not gone down well with the selection committee.
Similarly, the selection committee was initially made to believe that Bumrah and Sudarshan will be at least available for one of the two Test matches.
