The irksome injury rues are back to haunt the Men in Blue yet again. Alongside the usual suspect, Deepak Chahar; Kuldeep Sen & Rohit Sharma have also been ruled out of the ongoing 3-match ODI series in Bangladesh.
While Rohit and Chahar injured themselves during the 2nd ODI that India lost by 5 runs, Sen who made his ODI debut in Dhaka was out with a stiff back before the 2nd ODI.
In the post-match conference, while giving updates on the players' injuries, Rahul Dravid the Indian coach lamented yet again over not playing the full Indian squad.
The abundance of talent and the strong bench strength is not helping India's cause. As per Rahul Dravid, India is not getting to 'play a settled squad' due to injuries. But how will they?
For, Rohit Sharma who joined back the team after taking a break during the New Zealand series, played the first ODI, and by the 2nd one, in the first innings, the skipper was out with an injury. He, in spite of the thumb injury, fought a losing battle with a valiant 51* when he came out to bat at no. 9.
Deepak Chahar who consistently seems to be in tandem with the vexing injuries hurt himself for the third time in the last four months when he was playing the 2nd ODI; bowling in the 3rd over, he sustained a stiff hamstring - this evidently ruled him out once again from another series.
While Rahul Dravid, maintaining his usual stance, did not clarify if the skipper will be available for the Test series. Going by what the 35-year-old said in the post-match presentation it doesn't seem he would join the team back in Bangladesh for the 2-match Test series, starting December 14.
Rohit himself during the post-match presentation confirmed a dislocation for which he is flying back to Mumbai for treatment. Rohit who played only 2 out of the 11 Tests this year will likely take three to four weeks to recover from the thumb discomfort.
For the Mumbai-based batter who played 8 ODIs out of the 24 (including 3rd ODI vs BAN) that India were scheduled to play in 2022 had an excuse of the T20 World Cup 2022, but woefully, Deepak Chahar can't even afford that luxury. The 30-year-old was not available for selection for Asia Cup due to injury but was included later when India was already out of the trophy contention. Later, his discomfort returned during the South Africa series which led to him being eventually ruled out from the T20 World Cup's standby options as well.
In 2022, Chahar played only 8 out of 24 ODIs (including 3rd ODI vs BAN) & just 7 out of 40 T20Is that the Men in Blue payed this year.
Rohit bewailed over monitoring the workload when for one-third of the year, players like Chahar were nursing injuries.
Going by what Rahul Dravid said, India probably would come up trumps at least in the injury department in January when India will begin its World Cup 2023 preparations in full swing. Currently, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Mohd Shami, and Ravindra Jadeja are all nursing injuries.
'In the last two years, we had prioritised T20s a lot as there were two World Cups. In the next 8-10 months, we will be prioritising ODI cricket. It is not easy to juggle three formats. Now, our white ball boys (specialists) will get some rest with Test matches being played', Dravid said.