Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Devajit Saikia said the board is keen on coming up with a better schedule for the senior men’s team, ensuring cricketers get enough rest between matches and more time and warm-up games to get used to conditions on overseas tours, especially in South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia (SENA).
Speaking to the press after attending the much-awaited review meeting in Mumbai on Thursday, Devajit Saikia acknowledged that players are getting injured far too often and conceded that the men’s team is playing far too many games. The senior administrator said feedback was taken from captains Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir during the meeting.
“Individual players have injuries because they have to play a lot of matches. If you look at their schedule… if you look at the England tour, we had 15 players, the team went for the ODIs, and out of that 15, 3–4 players got injured during the matches. But we have to think about how they played two months of IPL prior to that,” Saikia said.
“So, all this takes a toll, takes a toll on the health of the players also. And to avoid those kinds of situations, what can we best do under the present windows and present FTPs? We are trying to find some ways out,” he said.
India have had a tough time in terms of the availability of their key players following the IPL 2026 season. Hardik Pandya has been out of action since the IPL, while Jasprit Bumrah missed the Test tour of Sri Lanka after suffering a knee injury during India’s white-ball tour of England earlier this year. All-rounders Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana have also had their own share of struggles, while off-spinner Washington Sundar missed the crucial Test series in Sri Lanka, where India missed his presence in the drawn second Test.
‘TOO MANY MATCHES IN A YEAR’
The Centre for Excellence in Bengaluru also came under the scanner, with speculation of a communication breakdown between the medical team there and the team management.
However, Devajit Saikia dismissed such rumours, saying the key stakeholders of Indian cricket are in perfect sync and better scheduling will help ease the workload on players and the support staff.
“Everybody is on the same page. BCCI is working very well, like a well-oiled engine. There is proper coordination amongst all the wings of BCCI,” he said.
“Whether it is women’s teams, committees or their technical staff or their coaches, vis-a-vis the COE, vis-a-vis the Indian men’s team’s coaching staff and the head coach, there is no difficulty in the coordination. Everything is moving in the right direction.
“The only challenges which we are facing is that there are too many matches in a year, and that is why in the next FTP we’ll do certain things. We’ll take certain measures.
“We have instructed our FTP persons, who will be meeting very soon in various international forums, that our FTP should be in such a way, it should be scheduled that there is proper rest for the players, as well as some kind of acclimatisation or something, kind of friendly matches before any major matches in the SENA countries,” he said.
FULLY FIT PLAYERS FOR AFG T20Is?
India named a 15-man squad for a T20I series against Afghanistan, starting September 13 in New Delhi. Four of the 15, including Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy, were picked in the squad, but subject to fitness.
When asked if there are concerns over their recovery, Saikia said: “We have a protocol in place, how a player can come back to the matches again, in international matches. So, when a player is injured, he goes to his own physio or he comes to the rehab programme under the COE. And before allowing him to be a part of the Indian team, there are certain measures they have to take and certain hurdles they have to cross.
“So, those kinds of things we have revisited today and whatever is the best way we can take forward, the players who have no injury in the international matches. We have discussed this issue, then we’ll further discuss this topic in our next meeting.
“And we have taken the feedback from the captains and the head coach, who are the right persons to give us the information so that we chalk up a proper strategy to avoid all these kinds of unwanted situations during any international or bilateral matches,” he said.
India have played the most number of matches (across all formats) in 2026: 36, tied with New Zealand. Apart from international fixtures, India also have a two-month window for the IPL, and well-structured domestic cricket tournaments also require players’ participation.
The current ICC Men’s FTP runs until 2027, meaning the next five-year cycle will offer the BCCI an opportunity to push for a more player-friendly international calendar, with greater rest and preparation time. The BCCI will also have to balance broadcaster demands, as commercial considerations play a significant role in determining the timing and volume of India’s bilateral fixtures.
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