India’s growing injury list has forced the BCCI to look beyond rehabilitation and confront a bigger problem: whether the modern cricket calendar is asking too much from its players. For years, India’s enormous depth has allowed the national team to absorb injuries without immediately feeling their full impact. But with several established players repeatedly spending time on the sidelines, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is now reassessing how much cricket its players are being asked to play and whether the current Future Tours Programme can provide enough breathing room.
BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia admitted that the workload has become a significant concern following a review meeting at the board’s headquarters in Mumbai. The meeting brought together head coach Gautam Gambhir, Centre of Excellence director VVS Laxman, Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill and T20I captain Shreyas Iyer, with the team’s recent performances and player availability among the key issues discussed. “Individual players are having injuries because they have to play a lot of matches,” Saikia said.
His comments came against the backdrop of an increasingly demanding international calendar, compounded by the Indian Premier League. Saikia pointed specifically to India’s recent tour of England, where several players suffered injuries after coming off two months of IPL cricket. “If you look at their schedule, in England, a 15-player team went for the ODIs and out of that, three to four players got injured. But they had played two months of IPL prior to that. So all this takes a toll on the health of the players,” Saikia said.
The issue is not restricted to one format. India’s players move between Test cricket, bilateral limited-overs assignments, franchise cricket and major tournaments, often with little opportunity for extended recovery. The BCCI’s challenge is particularly complicated because the IPL occupies a significant part of the annual calendar while international commitments continue throughout the year.
The consequences have been visible in India’s squad selections. Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Sai Sudharsan and Harshit Rana have all faced fitness concerns during a period in which India have also endured disappointing limited-overs results. India lost their T20I series against Ireland 2-0 before going down 4-1 against England, while the ODI series in England ended 2-1.
That combination of results and injuries has increased scrutiny on the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. However, the board has resisted the idea that the facility itself is responsible for India’s injury problems. Laxman has repeatedly stressed that the CoE is designed to offer much more than rehabilitation, with player monitoring, fitness programmes and sports science forming part of its wider responsibilities.
“CoE is not a rehabilitation centre. It is a centre where we strive for excellence every day,” Laxman said in August. The BCCI has also maintained that there is no major communication breakdown between the CoE, selectors and team management. Saikia said the priority was to identify practical solutions rather than assign blame. “everybody is on the same page,” Saikia said.
One of the clearest proposed solutions is a change to the way India’s future international tours are scheduled. The BCCI wants upcoming FTPs to include more rest, acclimatisation periods and practice matches before major tours of South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia. “In the next FTP, we will ensure proper rest for the players, acclimatisation, or some practice matches before any major series in SENA countries.”
The idea has already received support, although questions remain over how effective the warm-up matches will be if teams are unable to secure strong opposition. Former India batter Aakash Chopra recently welcomed the proposal but cautioned that the quality of preparation would matter as much as simply having a warm-up game on the schedule. The BCCI is also looking to strengthen its sports science structure. The board has acknowledged that the position of head of sports science at the Centre of Excellence remains vacant, although it has stressed that a wider support staff is already operating at the facility.
With India entering another demanding stretch of cricket, the timing of the review is significant. The team has a packed schedule ahead, with international commitments across formats before attention eventually turns towards the 2027 ODI World Cup. For the BCCI, the problem is no longer simply about getting injured players fit again. It is about preventing the injuries from occurring in the first place.
The biggest question facing Indian cricket is no longer whether the BCCI has enough depth. It is whether that depth has allowed the system to accept an unsustainable workload. India’s bench strength has often been celebrated as one of its greatest advantages. But there is a danger in treating replacement players as an unlimited resource. If one established player gets injured, another steps in. If another goes down, the next player gets his opportunity. Eventually, however, the depth itself begins to come under pressure.
The BCCI’s acknowledgement that excessive cricket is contributing to injuries is therefore important because it shifts the conversation from individual fitness to structural planning. The challenge is particularly complicated because the IPL is an integral part of the modern cricket ecosystem. It provides players with enormous competitive and financial opportunities, while also placing a substantial physical demand on them before international assignments begin. There is no easy solution. India cannot simply reduce international cricket, nor can it ignore the commercial realities of franchise cricket. What the board can control is how those commitments are arranged.
More rest does not necessarily mean less ambition. Better scheduling could mean better performances, fewer injuries and longer careers. As India looks towards the 2027 ODI World Cup, the BCCI’s biggest selection advantage may ultimately be keeping its best players available. The real test of the new strategy will not be the number of rehabilitation programmes at the Centre of Excellence, but how often India’s leading cricketers can stay on the field.
