India suffered a significant blow ahead of the Sri Lanka tour as several players, including Jasprit Bumrah, Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Reddy, among others, were ruled out due to injuries. This invited heavy criticism for the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE), with concerns over the injury management of the players and a lack of communication with the BCCI. VVS Laxman, who heads the CoE, however, refused the claims, saying there is no communication gap between the CoE and the board, with the BCCI secretary doubling down on Laxman’s statement.

The latest to come to the defence of the CoE is veteran Sunil Gavaskar, who feels the criticism of the CoE is unjust. Gavaskar said that player injuries are part and parcel of the sport and mostly happen due to wrong training.

“While Bumrah has a knee injury, it is seen that most Indian players suffer from hamstring injuries. Clearly, there’s something wrong with their training, and that’s why these recurring hamstring injuries. These injuries happen when they are playing for India, but unfortunately, the blame is put on the physios at the BCCI centre of excellence,” wrote Gavaskar in his column for Mid-Day.

Gavaskar also questioned the restrictions placed during the net sessions under the pretext of biomechanics and workload.

“The so-called biomechanics, where a bowler can bowl only so many deliveries in the practice nets, is a questionable practice. Even in the IPL, it is learnt that some of the overseas physios don’t allow the bowlers to bowl more than 20 balls in the nets. If in the match you will be bowling 24 balls, that is, if you don’t bowl no-balls and wides, then how is bowling a lesser number in the nets going to help?” he added.

“It is an issue that needs a good, hard look at why these injuries are happening again and again. It’s more important to be match fit than gym fit. But then, maybe I am from a generation that had different ideas on fitness,” Gavaskar said.