With Indian cricket in the throes of an injury crisis, the latest being Jasprit Bumrah and B. Sai Sudharsan’s absence from the upcoming tour to Sri Lanka, V.V.S. Laxman, head of BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE), defended the institution’s injury-management methods and recovery protocols.

“We don’t like to use the word blame, because when you do, you’re [trying to] find a scapegoat,” Laxman told reporters at the CoE premises on Sunday. “There’s brilliant coordination between the CoE, the team management and the SSM (Sports Science & Medicine) staff.”

There has been a worrying trend of players being declared fit only to pick up a new injury within a short period of time. Laxman stressed that this was not a cause for concern even as he clarified that the “CoE was not a rehab centre” and that it had a “bigger mandate”.

“When someone is playing at the elite level, you’re supposed to give more than 100%,” Laxman said. “Injuries are bound to happen. If you’re thinking about not getting injured, you’re not playing to the best of your ability. Monitoring is very, very critical, and I’ve got no doubt that Adrian Le Roux (S&C coach, Indian team) and others are doing that,” the 51-year-old added.

Both Bumrah and Sai Sudharsan were named conditionally in the squad for the two Tests against Sri Lanka before failing to obtain fitness clearances. Asked if it would be prudent to avoid players who are still undergoing rehabilitation, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia replied in the negative.

“We have our selection meetings at least three to four weeks before the team departs,” Saikia said. “We don’t reject because by the time the player will have to travel or play, he may be totally fit. It’s a human body, not a machine. It may take 14 days or 28 days.”

The CoE has been without a Head of Sports Science since Nitin Patel’s exit in March 2025. Saikia attributed this to an “acute shortage of right candidates” and Laxman stated that there will be no unseemly haste in the appointment process, for quality was paramount.

Andrew Leipus, who had had successful tenures with the Indian National team and the erstwhile National Cricket Academy, was the BCCI’s first choice to replace Nitin, but he pulled out.

“Andrew had almost agreed but then backed out,” Laxman said. “The next interview process was extensive, and the first candidate was from Australia, but he did not join. The second and third candidates are already working at the CoE. It is our responsibility to upskill them while we identify someone of that stature, experience and knowledge.”

Concerned with the spate of injuries that has rocked Indian team of late, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia will be meeting Head Of Cricket VVS Laxman on Sunday to take a stock of the rehabilitation management programme at the Centre of Excellence (COE).

India will be missing the services of Jasprit Bumrah (knee swelling), B Sai Sudharsan (left foot big toe), Harshit Rana (hamstring), Nitish Kumar Reddy (hamstring) and Washington Sundar (quadriceps) due to various injuries. Akash Deep (lower back stress fracture) has been out for the longest time since Bengal’s Ranji Trophy semi-final defeat.

Adding to that, white ball experts Hardik Pandya (quadriceps), Varun Chakravarthy (hamstring) and Prince Yadav (hamstring) are also at the Centre of Excellence where the Sports Science team is overworked without a figure head since the resignation of Nitin Patel in early 2025. Right now the challenge is to get all these players back on the park.

Sudharsan and Bumrah were enlisted in the squad subject to fitness but COE’s team of experts decided to exercise caution looking at the bigger picture.

“Yes, secretary Saikia will be in Bengaluru to take a stock of the situation along with VVS Laxman. There is a meeting scheduled between the two. It is not known whether head coach of national team Gautam Gambhir or chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar will join online or not. It will be interesting if both Saikia and Laxman can front up and answer a few media queries with so many conjectures,” a BCCI source in the know told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

There are also rumours that COE and the current selection committee has always not been in sync with regards to the injury management timelines and some of the players being released before they ticked all the boxes.

The issue of Harshit Rana reaching England after being distinctly overweight has not gone down well with the selection committee.

Similarly, the selection committee was initially made to believe that Bumrah and Sudarshan will be at least available for one of the two Test matches.

However once the dust settled down, it was found that Bumrah, post impact injury is finding that there is water retention in his knee which requires more time to heal.

In case of Sudharsan, he was batting 75 minutes a day for some time but the pain still persists on his big toe.

Nitish Reddy tried to increase his pace by a good 7 to 8 kmph and that put a toll on his hamstring and quadriceps. PTI KHS SSC SSC

When Mahendra Singh Dhoni was starting out as an India player, he had a favour to ask of the media. Please don’t rush to my parents’ house every time I score some runs, he pleaded. It is difficult to say which comes first, the public’s obsessive interest in a player or the media’s creation of that obsession. To remain a public figure and yet retain privacy is a delicate balancing act.

Sachin Tendulkar managed it well. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, younger when making his international debut, should steel himself (as his family must too) for the invasions that will surely follow. Yes, the public has a right to know (the usual argument), and yes the media only give the public what it wants. But at 15, Sooryavanshi is hardly in a position to resist even if he had the tools or knew the tricks.

He has made his point, winning the player-of-the-series award after India’s victory in Zimbabwe. Turns out he is what everyone had expected, a potentially great white ball player, a six-hitter in a game that is judged by six-hitting abilities, a match-winner, a bowling-killer. He is yet to shed his puppy fat, yet seems to know his game with a thoroughness that is almost frightening in someone so young. Where does he go from here?

He has made his point, letting the nay-sayers know that he is not too young for international cricket; he is at home in its atmosphere. Now we have an obligation — let’s leave him alone, and sit back to watch his progress over the next couple of decades. Fans are rarely given an opportunity to watch a player grow from his teens to his thirties on a live stage. A front row seat, too, that should not be abused by reaching out to touch the actor performing.

Break all records

“He will break all the records at international level,” said India’s coach in Zimbabwe V.V.S. Laxman, who has broken a few himself and watched Tendulkar do so too, so he knows a thing or two. And when he says he is impressed by the boy’s maturity and ability to handle pressure we are doubly assured.

Given the manner in which the white ball game grew out of the rib of red ball cricket, it is not surprising that the great players in one format, the top scorers, the bowlers with most wickets are the all-format champions. The game is yet to see an exclusively white ball great, although some may be emerging from the West Indies and Afghanistan.

It’s too early for Sooryavanshi to have to make the choice now, but will he be satisfied to finish as a white ball great or extend his grasp to include Test cricket too? Cricket is at a stage when format-specialisation (however inelegant the term) is not just a possibility but one likely to be encouraged.

Sooryavanshi might not be ready for Test cricket just yet, but such is his talent that the possibility is ever present.

When Tendulkar, at 16, made his Test debut in Pakistan, the prevailing wisdom was that you didn’t play a green Test player in a one-day match because the latter was bad company to keep for one so young. Then Tendulkar set the Peshawar stadium afire striking leg spinner Abdul Qadir for sixes at will (he scored 28 runs in one over) in an exhibition game, and there was no holding him back.

Sooryavanshi might have to do the reverse — keep his six-hitting in check and demonstrate how good his defence is!

Increased pressure

The cricket world is in for a treat, however you look at it. The pressures on a young Sooryavanshi will be far greater than on a young Tendulkar was, simply because of social media and instant criticism without cause.

Dealing with trolls, making the right choices, handling sponsors and advertisers are some of the off-field challenges ahead. The Board of Control for Cricket in India does not have a mentoring system, nor is there a proper players’ association which can bring its experience to bear upon these issues.

It was good of the cricket board to let his parents travel for matches with Sooryavanshi. All of us have a responsibility. After all, it takes a village…

Centre of Excellence head V.V.S. Laxman, along with batting coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar and bowling coach Sunil Joshi, will form India’s support staff for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe and the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

The move is aimed at giving the senior national team’s support staff a short break following the white-ball series against England.

India will tour Zimbabwe for a three-match T20I series in Harare on July 23, 25 and 27. The tour begins just four days after the conclusion of the England series on July 19.

Laxman and his support staff will also oversee the Indian team at the Asian Games, which coincides with India’s home white-ball series against the West Indies, where head coach Gautam Gambhir will be with the ODI squad.

This is not the first time that Laxman will be in charge of a second-string Indian team. He has headlined the coaching staff in Zimbabwe in 2024 when Shubman Gill was the captain and Abhishek Sharma made his debut. He was also the head coach at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023 when Rahul Dravid was with the senior team for the ODI World Cup.

Centre of Excellence head V.V.S. Laxman, along with batting coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar and bowling coach Sunil Joshi, will form India’s support staff for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe and the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.

The move is aimed at giving the senior national team’s support staff a short break following the white-ball series against England.

India will tour Zimbabwe for a three-match T20I series in Harare on July 23, 25 and 27. The tour begins just four days after the conclusion of the England series on July 19.

Laxman and his support staff will also oversee the Indian team at the Asian Games, which coincides with India’s home white-ball series against the West Indies, where head coach Gautam Gambhir will be with the ODI squad.

This is not the first time that Laxman will be in charge of a second-string Indian team. He has headlined the coaching staff in Zimbabwe in 2024 when Shubman Gill was the captain and Abhishek Sharma made his debut. He was also the head coach at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023 when Rahul Dravid was with the senior team for the ODI World Cup.