 New Delhi: India's bowling Coach, Venkatesh Prasad urged Indian players to focus more on their fitness, employ a sensible rotation policy and use the National Cricket Academy to build a bridge between its reserve pool and the senior team to counter the hectic international schedule that awaits the team from September.
Prasad said this, hoping his top players can avoid the kind of burnout that forced Andrew Flintoff off Test cricket.
Prasad also said that cramped schedules due to the advent of Twenty20 cricket are an unavoidable reality and one international players can survive only by ensuring they stay fit to play all the matches.
Prasad threw light upon his blueprint for the Indian team over the next 12 months and said that the BCCI's pool of contracted players should have regular sessions at the NCA in Bangalore, even while the national squad is touring, so they are ready for international duty at any given point of time. He also backed a rotation policy but one applied in a judicious manner where an in-form player is not rested just for the sake of rotation.
Prasad refused, however, to blame the IPL for the team's poor performance in the ICC World Twenty20 last month and said the Indian league was the best possible preparation for the event.
The Indian players are currently on a two-month break following the West Indies series, which ended on July 5. However, they face a tough stretch from September up to the next ICC World Twenty20 in May, starting with an ODI tri-series in Sri Lanka, the Champions Trophy, the Champions League, an ODI tri-series in Bangladesh, a home Test series against Sri Lanka, a home ODI series against South Africa and the third IPL in March-April.
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