Bhuvneshwar Kumar nursing hamstring injury for a long time, reveals NCA source
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been out of action since coming back from the Windies limited-overs series in August, and now an NCA source revealed that he is nursing a hamstring and side strain. Bhuvneshwar has been carrying the injury since July last year, after he came back from the tour of England.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar played most of the important matches for India in the 2019 World Cup, but his appearances have been sporadic since then. He has been out of action since coming back from the limited-overs leg in the West Indies in August and has been undergoing strength and conditioning programmes at the NCA.
While the BCCI has not officially declared the injury, Times of India reported that the bowler is nursing a hamstring and side strain. The selection committee has given no reason for ignoring him for the teams picked for the home games against South Africa and Bangladesh. This has also put NCA in a spot as the academy has acquired a terrible reputation for its injury management recently.
“It’s becoming a trend now at the NCA. As it is, the institution is fighting a label of just being a rehab centre and these cases keep coming up. Saha lost a good year and half of his career,” a top BCCI official told TOI.
“If Bhuvneshwar’s injury is not as serious, they must come up with a clear explanation of why it is taking him so long to get back on the field. The board announced that Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya needed to travel to England. Bumrah didn’t even need surgery,” the official added.
“He was not treated properly. His injury was allowed to aggravate because the team wanted to take him to the World Cup. He is still one of the first choices for white-ball cricket but he needs to get back on to the field before building up for next year’s T20 World Cup,” a source said.
TOI has also reported that the new BCCI regiment has been updated about the allegations against NCA of having a biased stance in hiring staff at the academy and the official claimed that process to hire S&C (strength and conditioning) coaches and physios was rushed after multiple changes in the eligibility criteria even as the board was going to elections and Dravid was about to take charge as the director.