As Captain Shreyas Iyer sat down for the inaugural press conference for the India-Afghanistan series, the one question that kept coming back to him was injuries to players and the disruption it is causing to the Indian team. The captain is aware that the biggest challenge facing India as they begin their T20I series against Afghanistan is not the abundance of options, but keeping those options fit.
“I don’t feel it is frustrating,” he said when asked about the constant changes to the squad. We also need to understand that no player deliberately gets injured,” Iyer said. You need that confidence when you are coming into a game,” he said. “Whoever gets the opportunity, it is ultimately for the team’s benefit,” he said. “For the player who misses out, it is important that I, along with the coach, keep communicating with him and give him confidence that he will get his opportunity when the day comes.”
Harshit Rana has been ruled out of both the Afghanistan series and the Asian Games after suffering another hamstring injury. Yash Thakur has been called up as his replacement. Jasprit Bumrah , Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy, meanwhile, have received fitness clearances and return to the squad. “We need to understand the amount of cricket a player is playing continuously and the intensity involved. Players are prone to injuries. “They are putting in their efforts for the team, and if those efforts have a negative consequence, that is something you cannot control. That approach will be particularly important during the Afghanistan series. The squad contains several players coming back from injury, including Bumrah, Washington and Nitish. The objective cannot simply be to get them through three matches. Iyer made the point while discussing Bumrah’s return. For a player coming back from injury, he believes match time matters as much as training. “When a player comes out of an injury, it is important that he gets game time.
India also has to judge how much cricket each player needs before the Asian Games.
