'From Sachin to Gauti to Dhoni to Viru, they used to grill me' - Former India strength & conditioning coach

The frustration in the Indian cricket team camp as well as among the management is constantly growing. The losses are not the most upsetting thing but the players falling prey to the injuries. Thanks to these untimely injuries, India have failed to do well in the major tournaments, and a search for a world trophy since 2013 continues.

India lost in the Asia Cup and made an exit from the semi-finals stage of the Men's 20-20 World Cup 2022. Throughout the year, major injuries to some big players have caused massive damage to India's chances in tournaments. Former India Strength and Conditioning Coach Ramji Srinivasan talked about the current injury concerns, workload management, and more.

“See there are lot of factors involving why injuries happen. Four main factors which we need to address in a holistic way are biological, physical, psychological and socio-cultural. Lot of pointers come under these four parameters. Coming to back injuries, there are many facets to it. When did these injuries start to happen? The mass scale ones involving fast bowlers, or a wicketkeeper or a spin bowler. We need to ask where did it start and why did it start. What triggered this tsunami of injuries is what we need to ask. Basically the source of the injury. How come everyone is becoming injured, which never used to happen before,” Ramji was quoted as saying in News 18.

Lot of things have changed: Ramji Srinivasan

Jasprit Bumrah has been one of the biggest injury concerns for India whose absence has hit India twice, during the Asia Cup and then at the World Cup 2022. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya is back to full fitness and is on a dream run since the 2022 edition of the Indian T20 League, Bumrah was drafted into the ODI squad for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka. Ramji also recalled the time with the Indian cricket team when players, from Sachin, Gambhir, and Sehwag, used to “grill” him on fitness and kept asking him questions around every session.

“Not ask me, they used to grill me because everyone wants to play for the country and it’s my duty to explain what everyday goals are. It started when I joined in 2009. From Virat Kohli to Suresh Raina everybody used to grill me. From Gauti to Dhoni to Viru, everybody. It’s my duty to explain to them and if I don’t know, I don’t know. We need to understand that cricket is a team game, not individual game.

So synergy has to be there and mindset has to be common at least. It’s not going to be one player I am going to make fit. Synergy has to be among all players so that they embark on the journey and one compliments the other. So that is true fitness for a team,” says Ramji.