BCCI to keep an eye on the workload of 23 shortlisted India hopefuls during IPL

The BCCI has shortlisted 23 India hopefuls whose workload will be strictly monitored during the ongoing Indian Premier League. These players are among those who do not feature in the BCCI’s Central Contract list with the other internationals.

This list includes players whom the selection committee have found worthy of national or A team call-up in the near future such as under-19 talents Prithvi Shaw and Shivam Mavi and domestic season’s top run-getter Mayank Agarwal.

The BCCI wants to keep a strict eye on these players because the tight schedule of the IPL, with the travelling and lack of time between matches, which makes workload management very important.

“The basic plan was to divide the players into three groups. The first group comprises current U-19s. The second group is of old U-19s, where we have players who played U-19 India in last three to four years. And the third group is of current India A Players,” a senior BCCI office bearer told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

“Let me give you an example. Young fast bowlers like Shivam Mavi or a Navdeep Saini may be asked by their franchise coaches to bowl 60 to 100 deliveries during a training session to Chris Lynn or AB de Villiers since they may not be certainties in playing XI.

“Here the BCCI steps in. These youngsters are our assets. A Bhuvneshwar Kumar knows his body and workload but when it comes to Mavi, Navdeep or Avesh (Khan), it’s our duty to protect them for greater interest of Indian cricket,” the office bearer said.

Instead, the training programme that these fast bowlers will follow is chalked out by the NCA trainers and physio. The trainers and physios of all eight franchises are also needed to give an update to NCA regarding the workload management of all these players.

It is learnt that someone like Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran is not in the list as he is not playing IPL but is certainly in radar for India A’s tour of England.

Following players (outside Central Contract) are being specially monitored by BCCI.

Current U-19s: Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti.

Old U19s: Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Sanju Samson.

Domestic, India A: Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Vijay Shankar, Jaydev Unadkat, Basil Thampi, Deepak Hooda, Mayank Agarwal, Ravikumar Samarth, Navdeep Saini, Siddarth Kaul, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne.

With inputs from PTI