Roseau (Dominica): Paras Mhambrey has been there and done that. As a former India bowler, the current bowling coach of the national team fully appreciates the workload on the bowling unit and the importance of keeping them fresh and injury free.
In the aftermath of India’s comprehensive win over the West Indies in the first Test on Friday, Mhambrey shared his concerns about keeping bowlers in prime condition, what with a busy schedule ahead for India. Jasprit Bumrah’s long absence due to a back injury remains a grave reminder of how wear and tear can affect a great career, and in turn the team.
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“Injuries and workload of bowlers is a big concern. If you look at the last one-and-a-half years, Bumrah is a player who we have missed a lot. We have not decided who is going to play white ball and who red ball but eventually we have to give breaks to our bowlers," Mhambrey said.
"This break also provides us an opportunity to create bench strength. Going forward, we have to take care of bowlers' fitness and workload management."
It’s almost a year since Bumrah has been out of the game (September 2022). This March, he had back surgery.
Mhambrey, 51, bowled medium pace for India in the 1990s and for Mumbai from the 90s to the early 2000s. He said that with the ODI World Cup and Asia Cup later in the year, it was crucial to look after the bowlers.
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"Workload management is one of the important things we have been working on it for the last couple of years... obviously we have missed Bumrah and Prasidh (Krishna) who have been part of the set-up," Mhambrey said.
"We have learnt from that. Looking at the schedule we have ahead of us, we play a lot of different formats and in that sense workload management will be important. A lot of discussion has been going on with the captain and in the team management as well," he added.
Like Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, too, has been troubled by his back for about a year. He had a lumbar stress fracture, for which he was operated upon and is now recuperating.
