Shardul Thakur laments lack of rest between Ranji Trophy matches, calls for better scheduling

The 32-year-old felt the small gap is tough on the fast bowlers and cited the example of his Mumbai teammate Mohit Avasti picking up an injury.

Mumbai’s Shardul Thakur celebrates after scoring a century. | Photo Credit: EMMANUAL YOGINI/The Hindu

At a time when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) wants to ensure the players do not skip domestic cricket, especially the Ranji Trophy, India all-rounder Shardul Thakur has called for better scheduling and gaps between games for the well-being of the players.

“It’s difficult because we are playing First-Class matches with three-day gaps,” said Thakur to a question about how he is managing workloads.

“When I started playing Ranji Trophy, the first three games used to have a three-day break and then four days. The knockouts had a five-day break. Now, we have seen all matches played with a three-day gap. So, it is extremely tough for domestic players to expect them to play 10 games in a row with a three-day gap if a team reaches the final.”

The 32-year-old felt the small gap is tough on the fast bowlers and cited the example of his Mumbai teammate Mohit Avasthi picking up an injury.

“Mohit played five games in a row and had an injury in the sixth game. He had a huge workload because Tushar (Deshpande) was called for India A, Dhawal (Kulkarni) was playing alternate games, and Royston (Dias) was fairly new. Because of the workload, he got injured and missed one game. I think they will have to relook at it next year and give more breaks. If boys keep playing like this for two more seasons, there will be a lot of injuries across the country,” he added.

Tamil Nadu skipper R. Sai Kishore echoed similar views and said, “A few players feel the same thing. We travel for one day, and because of this, I don’t train much and strain myself. The overs I am bowling are in the matches, and I manage myself that way, but it should be more challenging for the faster bowlers.”