Former Indian batsman and head of cricket at the National Cricket Academy Rahul Dravid says he and his team of coaches are looking for creative ways to monitor the players’ fitness training during the nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

India has been in lockdown since March 25 and sportsmen have found it increasingly difficult to work on their fitness during this period.

However, Dravid and his team at the NCA are working their way around this.

“For starters, our Strength and Conditioning experts and the physios are in constant touch with them, monitoring their programs and loads. Since some of them are recuperating from injuries, they require a different level of attention,” Dravid told The Times of India.

“Some have access to gyms but most don’t, so the S&Cs have had to become creative and provide the athletes the best possible solutions in such times, keeping in mind that they need to at least maintain current strength and conditioning levels if not become better,” he added.

Dravid confirmed that the NCA is also working on injury management and injury prevention programs and have collected data of a number of state players.

“I believe that the communication pipeline that has been set up, will allow us to track the players better and manage their injuries better in future,” he said.

“Additionally, every injury is reviewed from a point of view of protocols followed, timelines met in terms of recovery and relapse if any. We are aware that we are in such a competitive environment now that injuries will be put through the scanner, therefore having good processes is key and I believe we have been working well towards that,” he added.

“Also, the more data we can collect with regards to our men and women cricketers, the better position we will be in to set standards and protocols all the way down to the First Class and junior teams. We were hoping to continue this in our camps this summer,” he continued.

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The NCA appointed batting and bowling coaches and Dravid feels bringing in more experienced heads only broadens their horizons and thus provides more support for the cricketers.

“We have had coaches who have been working with the U-19 and India A and women’s teams, also providing support to athletes that come to the NCA for short upskilling stints or even some minor corrections/ adjustments during rehab,” Dravid said.

“We also have other coaches who work along with our ‘Head Education,’ Sujith (Somasundar) to develop and deliver coaching courses across the country. We had also identified some experienced Level 3 coaches as faculty, who could deliver our courses and they also went through some training,” he added.

The former Indian batsman refused to look too far ahead with the Covid-19 pandemic intensifying in India over the last few weeks and felt he would only be able to think about the implementation of his plans once the pandemic eases.

The work for the new NCA has also been put on hold due to the pandemic and Dravid doesn’t expect it to resume until the current crisis is under control.