Deepak Chahar's injury puts BCCI's workload management under the scanner

Deepak Chahar has joined the list of injured fast bowlers for India and this has raised a lot of questions over BCCI's injury management and workload management for fast bowlers especially over the past 18 months.

While Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya are on their way back to full fitness, Deepak Chahar's injury comes as a huge blow to India as he was starting to become a white-ball regular. Chief selector MSK Prasad believes that it is the number of games that the modern cricketer plays is what is causing such frequent breakdowns.

"You have to understand that these players play a lot of matches. Even Chahar had been constantly giving his all for Rajasthan in tournaments like Syed Mushtaq Ali between two international series. His injury got aggravated during the last ODI series against West Indies," Prasad told TOI.

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Prasad also claimed that they had come up with a presentation on how to manage the workload of the fast bowlers with the number of domestic games and India A tours increasing with each passing day. Prasad asserted,

"We gave a presentation to the captains and coaches at a conclave last year. We had recommended that there should be a system where the identified bowlers are given adequate rest during the domestic season. Each team plays at least eight Ranji games in two months besides other tournaments."

He further added,

"We have to also understand that state teams also want to win, get promoted or grow. It is eventually the state team's call. But we are seeing positive changes this year."

The 25 BCCI contracted cricketers are being monitored by 30 devices provided by the Athlete Management System (AMS). Prasad explained that since Chahar was not contracted to BCCI, he was not monitored daily. On the other hand, there are 50 players at the National Cricket Academy that are monitored in some way or the other.

India's pace attack has made a great reputation around the world and BCCI will have to improve its injury management techniques if it has to provide a large pool of top-quality fast bowlers.