‘IPL this year probably wasn't ideal timing for anyone’, Langer wonders if late IPL is having ‘impact on the injuries’
India have had a spate of injuries since the IPL and also in the current Australia series. The latest addition to the Indian injury list is Ravindra Jadeja, who was hit on his thumb, and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who has been ruled out of the last Test following an abdominal strain.
The ongoing Test series between India and Australia has been hugely affected by injuries. The touring Indian team has lost more than five players due to injuries while the hosts are also dealing with a few cases.
Expressing his views on the same, Australian head coach Justin Langer on Wednesday said that timing of the last year's Indian Premier League (IPL) edition could have been one of the factors behind the injury setbacks in the ongoing series.
“It is really interesting how many injuries (it) has been throughout this summer. I can't help and think that the IPL this year (2020) was in really, probably wasn't ideal timing for anyone, certainly for such a big series like this,” Langer said at a virtual press conference.
The 13th edition of the IPL was held in the September-November window in 2020 in the United Arab Emirates due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The cash-rich tournament is usually held in India during the April-May window.
“I love the IPL, I look at IPL now like I used to look at county cricket for our young players. They go and play county cricket and it helps them (in) their cricket development enormously, I think it is the same with the IPL, helps their white-ball development.
“But the timing of it...because of what happened with COVID...probably wasn't ideal, and I just wonder whether that is having an impact on the injuries that we are seeing for both teams throughout the summer, so I'm sure they'll review that,” said the Australian head coach.
India have had a spate of injuries since the IPL and also in the current Australia series. The latest addition to the Indian injury list is Ravindra Jadeja, who was hit on his thumb, and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who has been ruled out of the last Test following an abdominal strain.
Earlier, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav were ruled out of the series due to the various injuries they suffered.
The four-Test match series is currently tied at 1-1.
(With PTI Inputs)