NCA’s rehab program brought to question with recurrence of Shardul Thakur’s injury

The rehabilitation program of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) once again was looked at with doubtful eyes after Shardul Thakur’s groin injury forced him off the field on the first day of the second Test match between India and the West Indies in Hyderabad.

Just 10 balls into his much-awaited Test debut, paceman Thakur had to limp off the field with team physio Patrick Farhat after he had sustained a groin injury–the same problem that had ruled him out from the Asia Cup last month.

In the fourth ball of the fourth over, Thakur’s delivery was played to backward point by Kieran Powell after which it was seen that the bowler was in pain and with Farhat coming up onto the field and after a conversation with skipper Virat Kohli, Thakur left the pitch with Ravichandran Ashwin completing the over on his behalf.

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An official statement of the BCCI read, ” Shardul Thakur has gone for scans. He will not take the field today. An update on his participation for the rest of the Test will be taken after looking at the scans and after being assessed by the team management.”

This injury is this a recurrence of the one he had sustained during the math against Hong Kong in the Asia Cup.

Groin injury is a fitness related injury and not an on-field one. My question is how did Shardul get a fitness certificate within 10 days of complaining groin soreness and then it recurs within another fortnight. Strange,” a BCCI official, in his interaction with PTI, revealed.

He further raised questions for the staff who looks after the rehabilitation of these players at the NCA.

“COO Tufan Ghosh and Ashish Kaushik, who looks after the rehab of these contracted India players should answer. What sort of a clearance did he get? We hear big things about workload management but a bowler short throws other bowlers workload into a tizzy. If I am not wrong, one of the senior office-bearers (treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhry) wrote about NCA’s functioning to the COA but there wasn’t any reply. So this NCA mess lands at COA’s doorstep,” he said.

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