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India's medium-pacers have been making more news in the recent past for suffering injuries and niggles than their wicket-taking spells. So much so that, in four tournaments including the World Twenty20 (in West Indies earlier this year), bowlers have had to be flown in as replacements/stand-byes. It also begs the question whether a stringent rotation policy with regard to the fast bowlers needs to be followed.
Munaf Patel must be getting used to flying in as cover for injured fast bowlers in the Indian line-up. When S Sreesanth pulled out of the Test series even before a ball was bowled in the warm-up game, it was Patel who was flown in as a replacement.
Now Patel will fly in as cover-up as Ishant Sharma strained his ankle and Abhimanyu Mithun suffered a heat stroke during the first one-day international against New Zealand. Sharma, who came into this series with little match practice after not being sent on the India A tour or for the tri-series in Zimbabwe, bowled a total of 99 overs in the three Tests.
On Thursday, he bowled in the nets during a training session that included fielding drills. Sharma had his left ankle taped up and then wore an ankle brace before warming up to bowl. Though he started off gingerly, he was soon running-in well and bowling at a good pace. However, it was a brief bowling outing for the lanky paceman and, with India's next game only on Monday, he still has time to regain full match fitness.
The same, however, cannot be said about Mithun. In the recent past, Mithun was flown to Zimbabwe as a replacement for R Vinay Kumar. The pacer was a part of the India A squad that was touring England when he was asked to fill in for Kumar. Umesh Yadav, 22, the Vidarbha medium pacer was to fly to the West Indies as a replacement for Praveen Kumar, who was affected by a side strain during the World Twenty20 in May.
Mithun made the Test squad and played all three games recently when he was drafted in after Zaheer Khan pulled out because of a shoulder injury. Zaheer played the Asia Cup after being rested for the tri-series in Zimbabwe. During the Asia Cup, Ashish Nehra suffered a niggle and Ashok Dinda got a game. Nehra recovered in time to play in the final against Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka skipper Kumar Sangakkara, when asked about how injuries can be managed keeping in mind the hectic schedules of teams, said: "The workloads are quite high. We have to basically make decisions on how many players we are going to play in particular formats. We must ease the workload off, ease training on a certain set of players and these decisions become crucial," Sangakkara said.
The Lankan skipper added that injured bowlers must have an incentive to return quickly. "We have to make players understand that if they do get injured, there is a scheme in place to look after them from a Board's perspective and a team perspective, so that they don't feel left out and just used but feel valued and there is an incentive for them to come back quickly and play, even if they think they are going to get injured."
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