Shastri comes down heavily on Indian pacers over lack of fitness

'I mean, you can't play four matches on the trot. What are you going to the NCA for, if you are going to come back and then three matches (later) you're back there (NCA).'

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has hit out at the injury management of some of country's premier bowlers, saying they seem to have become "permanent residents" of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) while undergoing rehabilitation.              

While Shastri didn't take any name, his obvious reference was Chennai Super Kings seamer Deepak Chahar, who has broken down at least thrice in match situations in the last eight months after being declared fit by Nitin Patel-headed Sports Science & Medical team at NCA.

"Let's put it this way: there are quite a few in the last three or four years who are permanent residents of the NCA. Soon, they'll get a resident permit there to walk in any time they want, which is not a good thing at all. It's unreal," Shastri said sarcastically on ESPN Cricinfo's digital video.

The BCCI-run NCA in Bengaluru has a dedicated sports science and medical team that helps the centrally-contracted cricketers in getting treatment for their injuries.

Chahar is struggling due to recurrence of his left hamstring injury while tearaway quicks Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna have undergone surgeries in New Zealand for lower back stress fracture.

Shastri, who was India's head coach as recently as October, 2021, is surprised that some of these bowlers don't even play all formats but are yet not fit enough to bowl four overs across four T20 games on the trot.

"Come on, you're not playing that much cricket to be injured again and again," Shastri said.

"I mean, you can't play four matches on the trot. What are you going to the NCA for if you are going to come back and then three matches (later) you're back there (NCA)?" he questioned.

He urged the players going for rehabilitation to at least try to be fit enough so that no one is wasting their time and money.

"So, you make sure you get fit and come once and for all because it's damn frustrating. Not just for the team, the players, the BCCI, the captains of the various [IPL] franchises. It's annoying, to say the least."

His next comment was a direct reference to Chahar, who had a couple of months back claimed in an interview to PTI that he is "fully fit".

"I can understand a serious injury, but every four games when someone touches his hamstring or someone touches his groin, you start thinking what are these guys… what are they training, what's going on?

"And some of them don't play any other cricket in the year. It's just four overs [in the IPL], man, three hours. The game is over."