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Indian men’s cricket faces new cracks between Ajit Agarkar’s selection committee and the BCCI CoE in Bengaluru over player fitness, highlighted by Jasprit Bumrah’s injury.
Ajit Agarkar and Jasprit Bumrah.
(PTI, AFP)
A new crack seems to be emerging in the system of Indian men’s cricket after every few days. Today, there’s a reported substantial disconnect between the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee and the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru — the two arms under the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that are supposed to work together to get the best fitness out of the cricketers.
According to PTI, the issue concerns several players but has drawn particular spotlight after what happened with Jasprit Bumrah. The CoE is said to have conveyed to Agarkar and Co. that the premium pacer, who’s carefully managed at every level, would be available to travel to Sri Lanka for the upcoming two-Test series.
However, as it turned out, Bumrah’s knee issue was more serious than previously assumed, and he had to be ruled out completely. On Monday, the BCCI announced Auqib Nabi as his replacement.
The report said there was a virtual meeting on Monday between the top officials of CoE, including the chief VVS Laxman, and Agarkar to discuss ‘the injury management issue of centrally contracted players’. The report named three players as injury concerns, though it wasn’t mentioned whether these names were discussed in the meeting — Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar and Nitish Reddy.
The report also claimed that ‘a popular T20 specialist batter from one of the southern states’ was also ‘overweight’ when he arrived in England.
The report questioned CoE’s negligence in the matter of all four players’ fitness, with each of the first three now out for extended periods due to injuries. It said that the questions were being raised in the BCCI circles over the rehab timelines being set for players and whether the prescribed ‘Return to Play’ protocols were being adhered to consistently.
The CoE doesn’t have a permanent sports director since the departure of Nitin Patel. Dhananjay Kaushik, the man serving the role on an interim basis, is now set to be scrutinised whenever the BCCI begins its long-reported ‘review’ meeting for the disastrous tour of the United Kingdom.
August 03, 2026, 20:20 IST
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