He IPL The final concludes on May 31, leaving a short gap of six days before the Afghanistan Test begins on June 6 at the Mullanpur Stadium. After this five-day match, India will play three one-day internationals against Afghanistan, followed by tours of Ireland, England and Zimbabwe in July.
According to a report by The times of Indiathe minimum gap between the IPL final and the Afghanistan test has raised concerns about the management of player workloads.
With three ODIs and a white-ball tour of England scheduled soon after, the management is focused on avoiding burnout. The report also noted that the Afghanistan Test does not award WTC points, making it crucial to manage players carefully amid a long and demanding schedule.
“There is not much gap between the IPL final and the Afghanistan Test, so the selectors and management will be careful not to burn the players as there are three ODIs and then the white-ball series in England,” timesofindia.com quoted a source as saying.
“There are no WTC points in the Afghanistan Test and the stakeholders need to carefully manage the workload because some of the players would be on tour for almost two months and play a lot of cricket in the rest of the year,” the source added.
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IPL playoff results will influence rest calls for Shubman Gill and Jasprit Bumrah
The report added that the rest strategy will depend on how the Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians perform in the IPL playoffs. There are concerns about players switching formats, with limited turnaround time between Test and ODI series.
“And there is little turnaround time between Test and ODI series. So, you will again be in the situation where a Test and ODI regular, say like Gill, Bumrah, KL Rahul and even Ravindra Jadeja, would change the formats from T20 to Test to ODI in less than a month. The captain and coach have been very explicit about such scheduling in the past and could have the final say,” the source adds.
According to a report by The times of IndiaThe selectors closely follow the national artists, with Manav Suthar and Gurnoor Brar emerge as strong contenders after impressive recent performances.
Young players in contention as workload management becomes more important
The report also noted that players like Harsh Dubey, Auqib Nabiand Devdutt Padikkal remain in the squad, while Nitish Kumar Reddy’s improvement with the ball has also kept him in contention.
“One thing is clear with this selection panel: they rarely rush. It is no secret that Gurnoor and Manav have been very impressive, as have Harsh, Auqib and Devdutt. It will all come down to discussions between the think tank and the medical team because optimal utilization of resources is going to be key here. There is no point in putting your star players under the sun for a five-day match that offers no WTC points.”
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