Rohit Sharma stated on Wednesday that although the Indian team management has given franchises in the Indian Premier League broad guidelines for workload management of players prior to the ICC Men’s Cricket ODI World Cup, he doubts that players will actually decide to skip an IPL game. The onus ultimately, he said, is on franchises and players to be smart and open about it.

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The increase in injury lay-offs within the Indian team that has seen the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer and Prasidh Krishna miss out on game time due to injuries. The management would be keen to ensure that the players remain fresh for the World Test Championship final to be played at the Oval in London a week after IPL and the World Cup in October.

“I mean, it’s all up to the franchises now,” Rohit said in the press-conference after the third ODI against Australia. “The franchises own them (the players) now, so we’ve given some indications or some kind of borderline kind of thing to the teams. But at the end of the day it’s up to the franchises and, most importantly it’s the players you know, they have to take care of their own body.

“They are all adults. So they have to look after their body and just if they feel that it’s getting a little too much, they can always talk about it and have a break in one or two games. I doubt that will happen but,” he added.

Bumrah was ruled out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in 2022, he was then ruled out of the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka and continued to remain unavailable even during the most recent entire bilateral series with Australia. The BCCI hasn’t given an official release on his situation but he has reportedly undergone a surgery in New Zealand. Meanwhile, Iyer first missed the the last Test in Ahmedabad and then the next three ODIs due to a recurrence of his back issue. His participation in the IPL also remains in doubt. Krishna has already been ruled out the IPL season.

Rohit said, “Look, yeah, it is concerning because … we are missing the players who are actually playing XI players, you know … they regularly play in the playing XI.”

“But honestly, everyone’s trying their best to get everyone on the path, we’ve been focusing a lot on management of the players, which is why you keep seeing we have to rest certain players at certain point in time.”

He added: “Obviously when you play so much cricket injuries are bound to happen. So not looking too much into it… what’s available to you, what’s in your hand, you can control that, and we are just trying to control all of that.”

Watch the entire press conference here.

Quotes courtesy: PTI