The growing injury crisis in the Indian team has put the Centre of Excellence (COE) under scrutiny, with a string of injuries affecting the squad across formats. Jasprit Bumrah is dealing with knee swelling, while Sai Sudharsan is sidelined with a left big toe injury. Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy are recovering from hamstring injuries, while Washington Sundar is out with a quadriceps issue. With several key players unavailable, concerns are growing over India’s injury management and rehabilitation setup.
Bumrah has been ruled out of the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka after failing to recover from the knee injury he suffered during the England tour. The premier pacer remains a key player for India across formats, with his fitness crucial to the team’s plans for the next World Cup and the ongoing World Test Championship cycle.
His latest setback has also brought the Centre of Excellence under scrutiny, with questions being raised over the facility’s role in his fitness assessment and availability. However, former India batter Subramaniam Badrinath clarified that the COE does not make selection decisions. Its role is to provide the team management with updates on a player’s fitness and recovery, while the final call rests with the captain, coach and selectors.
"I don't know who made the decision. COE will not make the selection, right? They will just say he is in this state and can play these matches and his body is in this state. But I think the captain, coach, and selectors are taking the decision. COE only passes the information. They are not selectors," Subramaniam Badrinath said in a video on his YouTube channel.
{{/usCountry}}"I don't know who made the decision. COE will not make the selection, right? They will just say he is in this state and can play these matches and his body is in this state. But I think the captain, coach, and selectors are taking the decision. COE only passes the information. They are not selectors," Subramaniam Badrinath said in a video on his YouTube channel.
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“Cannot control injuries”
Badrinath also cautioned against linking every injury in the Indian team to the same issue, pointing out that the players have suffered different types of setbacks. He explained that while some injuries are unavoidable in professional sport, workload management, fitness and regular monitoring remain important in keeping players available.
"I don't have an immediate answer to the root cause of so many injuries. It is important to see what kind of injuries these are. At high-level professional sport, injuries are common. Sai Sudharsan got hit by a ball, with Bumah, it is a chronic injury because of being overused and fitness is not Sundar's forte, he is injury-prone. His fitness needs a lot of work. Management and monitoring is very important. Injuries are bound to happen and you cannot control it," he said.