The grueling Test tour of South Africa concluded in early January 2007 and towards the end of that month, India played the West Indies in a bilateral ODI series in preparation for the 50-over World Cup to be played in the United States. Caribbean in a month and a half. India played four ODIs on January 21, 24, 27 and 31 in Nagpur, Chennai, Cuttack and Vadodara. On February 1, four members of that team – Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar and Sourav Ganguly all took a flight from Vadodara to Mumbai.
Rode? Mumbai played the Ranji Trophy final against Bengal from February 2 to 6 and none of them wanted to miss the prestige clash. Tendulkar scored a hundred, Ganguly scored 90 and Zaheer picked up a bag full of wickets.
Within 48 hours of that Ranji Trophy final, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Zaheer had to play an international ODI series against Sri Lanka. 'Workload management' was not yet a topic of conversation at the time.
The Indian team that was bowled out 0-3 at home by New Zealand on Sunday had seniors exempted from playing Duleep Trophy despite a decent break after the T20 World Cup with just a three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka in the meantime .
Apart from Jasprit Bumrah, whose injury-prone body and exceptional skills require workload management, no questions are asked as to why the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have opted out of the Duleep Trophy.
“In the grueling heat of the second week of April, in the year 2000, he played the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai against Tamil Nadu and scored a double hundred in a first-innings chase of nearly 500,” former India -opener Devang Gandhi, who was a national selector between 2017 and 2021, I recalled while talking to PTI.
“Within another three days he played the Ranji final against the Hyderabad team with Mohammed Azharuddin and VVS Laxman and scored fifty and a hundred. Tendulkar played the Ranji semi-final and final in April in a span of two weeks after ODIs played until the end of March,” said the former player.
For the record, the last Ranji Trophy match Kohli played was in Ghaziabad against Uttar Pradesh in 2012 (Group B, November 2-5), a match that also featured Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Ashish Nehra, Ishant Sharma, Suresh Raina , Mohammed Kaif and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Perhaps one of the last star-studded games ever played in Ranji Trophy.
Rohit's last Ranji Trophy match for Mumbai was in 2015.
After that, both have played one first-class match each: Kohli for India A for a tour of Sri Lanka (2017) and Rohit for India A for a home series against South Africa (2019) when he was due to start in Tests.
Tendulkar played 310 first-class matches, including his 200 Tests. So, in 24 years, the maestro played 110 first-class matches, including tour matches, despite his hectic international schedule. His last Ranji Trophy match was in 2013 (against Haryana in Lahli in October).
In comparison, Kohli has played 32 first-class matches and Rohit is doing a lot better with 61 matches in 18 years of first-class cricket since 2006.
But to be fair, the Tendulkars, Laxmans, Dravids and Gangulys in their prime didn't have the two-month IPL and T20 Internationals engagements that the current generation plays. Rohit has played 448 T20 matches in his career while Kohli has one less than 400.
“It is clear that workload is important and so is rest,” Gandhi said.
“But for batsmen, if you realize you are not in the best form, you have to resort to domestic cricket. I believe one Duleep Trophy match could have been played,” Gandhi reasoned.
In contrast, former chairman of selectors MSK Prasad believes it is unfair to compare the two eras given the amount of cricket being played now.
“It's different from the days of Kapil Paaji and Sunny Sir, the volume of cricket has increased exponentially. It demands a lot from cricketers,” Prasad said.
“I think in the one-off Irani Cup match, the BCCI can make it mandatory for stars to appear for the Rest of India team, but they should place it at a time that does not overlap with a Test series,” he said. suggested.
Prasad also felt that there should be a structured rotation policy to manage workload, something that the committee led by him introduced between 2017 and 2021.
“I don't know why the rotation system we introduced to ensure breaks for players has been abolished. You didn't need all the stars to play against Bangladesh,” he said.
The BCCI had a few months ago emphasized on the need for big players to appear in domestic matches, but at the same time the board allowed them to skip the Duleep Trophy, which took place before the two-Test rubber against Bangladesh.
“Champion players are very confident individuals. (But) Sometimes a little push is needed to help them. That said, expectations need to be set from the start with the right stakeholders to avoid awkward situations,” said another former selector Jatin. Paranjpe, puts the responsibility on the board.
Possibly the way forward for the board will be to make it mandatory for the Indian team members (unless someone is injured) to play at least one or two domestic matches before a big Test series.
During the 'India Cricket' season, which runs from October to March, the Ranji Trophy always overlaps with some home Test series unless the team travels to Australia, New Zealand or South Africa during the same period.
“A good way is to plan a home Test series in such a way that it has at least one or two Ranji rounds preceding it, rather than running in parallel, which has been the case all along,” Prasad said.
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