IPL 2023: BCCI asks bowlers to scale up workload ahead of WTC Final

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has advised its bowlers to scale up their workload in the ongoing Indian Premier League 2023, keeping the upcoming World Test Championships final in mind. While the batters were earlier instructed to keep a watch on their workload in order to not pick up any stress ahead of the all-important upcoming ODI World Cup, contradictory guidelines have now been issued for the bowlers.

They may also be seen practising with the red ball in the IPL nets which is expected to scale up towards the later phase of the ongoing IPL. As reported by Cricbuzz, the bowlers have been assigned specific targets, following the completion of which, they are expected to report to the board.

This has reportedly been done to reverse the low workload of the bowlers. They have, thus, been instructed to bowl at least 200 deliveries a week before reporting to the governing authority. This has been done in order to cover up for the missed sessions that would arise as a result of the excessive travel involved in the IPL. With the teams traveling and putting up in new venues every other day, the bowlers might miss out on key practice sessions which could result in a reduced workload for them.

Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun opened up on the development and said that the bowlers should have enough workload before going into the WTC Final. Although generally aimed at pacers, spinners, too, haven't completely been kept out of the purview of this new instruction.

"It is important that the bowlers have enough workload under their belt before the WTC final, 200 or 175....they must go to the WTC well prepared," said Arun.

'Franchises own them now' - Rohit Sharma puts the onus of player management on respective IPL teams

Team India skipper Rohit Sharma has left it to the franchises to look after and manage their respective Indian bowlers. He told that instruction had been dispatched to each franchise but it is them who owned the players. Therefore, he said, it depended upon the franchises how they wanted to employ their players.

"Franchises own them now. We've given them some indications or some kind of borderline kind of things to teams. But at the end of the day, it's up to the franchises and most importantly it's the players. They have to take care of their own body. They are all adults. So, they have to look after their body," said Rohit.

Team India's frontline pacer Mohammad Shami too, opined on this instruction and told that as a player, it wasn't always possible to think long-term as no one knew what would happen the next day. He further said that as international cricketers, bowlers should understand their bodies well and accordingly manage the workload.