With the official review meeting in Mumbai on the first day of 2023, the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has shortlisted 20 players for the 2023 men’s ODI World Cup.
On, Sunday, BCCI secretary Jay Shah met the head coach Rahul Dravid, National Cricket Academy Chairman VVS Laxman, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and chief selector Chetan Sharma for a review meeting in Mumbai. BCCI president Roger Binny attended the meeting virtually as he is currently holidaying in Australia.
With India’s 10-wicket loss against England in the T20 World Cup semi-finals last year and an early exit in the Asia Cup 2022, BCCI now shifts the focus to the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup coming this year.
As per the reports, BCCI now has shortlisted 20 players who will be part of the ODI World Cup. These players will be rotated for various matches before the 2023 ODI World Cup.
“It was a very constructive and fruitful meeting where we have reviewed the past performance and planned for the future events, including World Cup and World Test Championship (WTC). We will give preference for international cricket while making sure the IPL is not diluted”, a BCCI source said.
NCA will coordinate with franchises for the player’s workload. “Keeping in mind the men’s FTP and preparations for ICC CWC 2023, the NCA will work in tandem with the IPL Franchisee to monitor the targeted Indian players participating in the IPL 2023”.
Injuries of key players like Jasprit Bumrah, Jadeja, and Deepak Chahar affected the T20 World Cup as they were ruled out of the tournament. The injury alert triggered a debate on whether the star cricketers should be given the option to rest in the IPL. Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri said last year that BCCI should think about the option.
“With the volume of cricket that exists today, it’s extremely important that you get the balance right of how much a player plays. When should he be rested? And there, a (BCCI) president can play a big role. Tomorrow, if a cricketer, for the sake of playing for India, needs to be rested in the IPL for a certain number of games, so be it. Where, a (BCCI) president has to sit with the franchise and explain that he’s extremely important for India first, and then the franchise,” Shastri said.
“The issues of player availability, workload management, and fitness parameters were also discussed at length during the meeting along with the roadmap to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023,” the BCCI said.
There will be no compromise on the fitness of the players as the Yo-Yo Test will be the chief criterion.
“The Yo-Yo Test and Dexa will now be part of selection criteria and implemented in the customized roadmaps of the central pool of players,”.
The declining fitness standards of the players affected the team badly in fielding in previous tournaments. During the Virat Kohli-Shastri regime, the Yo-Yo test was mandatory. Now, BCCI is going to take it back as a major criterion for selection.
A Dexa test will measure the bone density and strength of a person and help analyze the risk for osteoporosis and fractures. Also, the test will help measure body composition such as body mass and muscle mass.
BCCI also mentioned the emerging players and their role in domestic cricket. “The emerging players will have to play a substantial domestic season to be eligible for selection to the national team. It basically means that only those players who perform well in all the domestic tournaments, and not just in the IPL, will be considered for selection”. The decision was taken after noticing some players who are only considering playing in IPL rather than the other domestic tournaments.
