BCCI vows more rest for Team India

BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia on Thursday said the board will be working in the direction of ensuring proper rest, acclimatisation and practise matches for Indian cricketers ahead of any major series in SENA countries. 

Following a review meeting in BCCI headquarters, Saikia said there is no lack of communication within Indian cricket as far as injury management is concerned but the board will try and ensure to have a better Future Tours Program (FTP) to give the players ample time to prepare.

“Everybody is on the same page. BCCI is working in a very well, like a well-oiled engine,” Saikia told reporters.

“There is proper coordination amongst all the wings of BCCI, whether it is women’s team committees or their technical staff or their coaches, vis-a-vis the COE, vis-a-vis the Indian men’s team’s coaching staff and the head coach. There is no difficulty in the coordination, everything is moving in the right direction.”

“The only challenge which we are facing is that there are too many matches in the year and that is why in next FTP we will do certain things, we will take measures.

“We have instructed our FTP persons who will be meeting very soon in various international forums that our FTP should be in such a way it should be scheduled that there is proper rest for the players as well as some kind of acclimatisation or some kind of friendly matches before any major series in SENA countries (South Africa, Australia, England and New Zealand),” Saikia added.

The review meeting was attended by India Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill, T20I skipper Shreyas Iyer, head coach Gautam Gambhir, director of cricket at Centre of Excellence VVS Laxman, along with officials of the Indian cricket board. The chairman of selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, however, could not join the meeting even via video conferencing.

“We discussed (about) our team performed in England and Ireland and also about what we are going to do about the next one year. The road map has been prepared and we will be doing some exercises so that we have a very good performance in the 2027 (ODI) World Cup,” Saikia added. Acknowledging that the team did not do well in limited-overs tours of Ireland and England, Saikia said the team needed to do some “soul searching” but said strategy has been chalked out in that regards.

India suffered 0-2 loss to Ireland in their two-match T20I series before losing to England 1-4 in the T20Is and 1-2 in the three-match ODI series.