NEW DELHI: It seems the Indian team management has marked their core for the limited-overs version and wants to shield the players from “too much” cricket. It is learnt that Yuzvendra Chahal and MS Dhoni have pulled out of the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.
Kedar Jadhav and Shreyas Iyer, who too have been selected for the limited-overs leg in South Africa next month, are also at the National Cricket Academy(NCA) in Bengaluru. While Jadhav is said to be still recovering from a hamstring injury which prevented him from taking part in the ODIs and T20Is against Sri Lanka at home last month, Iyer too is believed to be nursing a hamstring niggle.
Dhoni had informed the Jharkhand team management last week to ignore him for the tournament. Interestingly, Chahal, as of now, has been asked to stay back at the NCA till January 15 just when the zonal league stage of the Mushtaq Ali tournament ends. Chahal and Jadhav have already skipped a few rounds of Ranji Trophy games, citing rehabilitation at the NCA.
“The idea behind rescheduling this tournament was to have a good competition ahead of the IPL auctions which are scheduled on January 27. Now that these players are secured about their future, they can afford to take it a bit easy. The ODI and T20 teams for South Africa were named over a month in advance. Something which needs to be looked into. Fitness is primary ground of selection these days and if these players are injured, how can they be named without having recovered,” a top BCCI official told TOI.
Chahal has not played a single domestic game for his state Haryana this year and has been training at the NCA whenever he is not on national duty. “This time we are told he got hurt in his finger while training and that’s why he won’t be a part of the Haryana team,” a source close to the Haryana team said. When Jadhav skipped Ranji games, he had cited a hand injury.
Chahal, Dhoni skip Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tourney
