Reports | BCCI to look into NCA’s treatment of Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s injury
With more details emerging about the nature of Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s injury going undetected while recuperating at the NCA, the BCCI have been urged to look into all the records. Given the ‘sports hernia’ diagnosis, Bhuvi has been replaced by Shardul Thakur for the ODI series against West Indies.
Even though Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was made to go through three separate scans at a private hospital in Bangalore, while recovering from his injury at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), the hernia went undetected. Then, the bowler, who had been in severe pain due to the injury, was declared match-fit for the West Indies series and eventually played all three T20Is.
“Bhuvneshwar complained of pain in his right groin. He underwent an ultrasound scan and the BCCI medical team found that his sportsman’s hernia symptoms have resurfaced,” the selection committee confirmed, reported TOI.
It is understood that the team management has expressed serious concern over the manner in which the senior fast bowler’s injury was handled. The BCCI is in possession of all medical records of the bowler and the matter could soon be brought to the notice of president Sourav Ganguly and NCA director Rahul Dravid.
“It took the physiotherapist of the Indian team no time to come up with the correct diagnosis. He is in such bad shape right now that forget four overs (in T20), he can’t even bowl one. How could a player who is clearly not in shape to be on the field, and who requires surgery, be rushed into the team?” sources said.
Though TOI tried contacting NCA’s chief physiotherapist Ashish Kaushik for comments, he was unavailable. Meanwhile, Bhuvi himself has reportedly sworn to never return to the NCA for any further rehab processes. The right-arm pacer made the much-awaited return in the series against Windies before he was ruled out of the ODI series as Shardul Thakur replaced the experienced pacer.
“The credit has to go to the team support staff that helped detect this in time. Bhuvi could play a vital role in India’s T20 World Cup campaign. Thankfully, there is time for him to properly recover and get some matches under the belt during the IPL,” sources said.
“You have to look at it from his point of view. He’s terrified. Imagine, had he continued playing. At some point, there’d have been a complete breakdown. We sincerely hope the president and the secretary will get to the bottom of this matter,” sources concluded.