Is Team India's ICC World Cup 2023 preparation affected by NCA's inferior injury management?

The year 2023 is crucial for Team India, as it is the year of the ICC World Cup, which will be held in India. The Men in Blue would be fancying their chances at laying hands on the coveted trophy for the third time, having last won in 2011 in the country under MS Dhoni's leadership.

While Rohit Sharma would be the man to try his luck at it, the Indians have begun preparations for the same in a complete fashion. However, the rehearsals have been hit with a lag, especially with the injury concerns of a few of the star players. While India's prime pacer Jasprit Bumrah faces an issue, especially with his bowling action, middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer struggles with recurring back pain.

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While all the players undergo intense rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, the academy has been under the scanner for its gimcrack injury management, especially from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). While Bumrah was rushed to return to international cricket last year, only to go through another prolonged injury layoff, Iyer played the just-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against Australia, only to have the back pain return, as his Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 stint with former two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as the skipper looks dicey.

The case also happened to be the same with Deepak Chahar, who has become too injury prone and keeps getting injured right after recovery, as has been the case with him in the past couple of instances. All these players form part of Team India's core group, which the Indian selectors want to retain and prepare the best heading into the CWC. But, how will that be possible with such persistent injuries is a million-dollar question that both BCCI and the NCA must find an answer to.

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Talking to the Times of India, a source informed, "How does one expect to play with a core group when the primary players are breaking down despite such thorough workload management? The issue is being raised with NCA. The team management and the selectors are back to creating a set of backup players now. There has to be someone accountable for this."

While the BCCI was looking to groom pacer Prasidh Krishna as Bumrah and Chahar's deputy for the future of Team India, surgery has now forced him to miss out on IPL 2023 with former champion Rajasthan Royals (RR). While the NCA is trying hard to get these players fit on time and to the fullest, besides finding answers to their injury recurrence, it all happened after the national board rejigged the complete NCA structure last year, with Nitin Patel being promoted to head of sports science and sports medicine from Team India's physio.

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"These injuries that are happening now are serious ones. They would require much time to recover and be back in full flow. Making a settled team has become a challenge. The NCA has taken charge of 'targeted' and 'emerging' players on the state sides. To have a situation where you play these players directly in big tournaments could be better. The selectors were still fine with Bumrah even playing directly in the World Cup, but to have a group of such players is unpleasant," concluded the TOI source.