IPL 2020: Ishant Sharma likely to miss the the first part of the tournament

Team India has been suffering from injuries to key players for quite some time now. The year gone by saw many of the prime players, missing out on a lot of cricket due to the injuries which kept on creeping up from time to time. And, joining the list of injured players is Ishant Sharma who might have to sit out for some matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL) due to his ankle injury.

Ishant Sharma, who was recovering from an ankle injury prior to the start of the New Zealand tour, was forced to sit out of the second match as it has resurfaced again. In the first Test match that he played, the lanky pacer bowled 22.2 overs and took 5 wickets. But all of those efforts went into vain as India lost the match by a margin of 10 wickets.

Now, as reported by India TV, the veteran pacer is likely to miss the first part of the IPL too, as he might have to undergo rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA). The NCA has come under the scanner again after a similar ankle injury has flared up once again even though the Indian team management has remained tight-lipped about the scan results.

Ishant Sharma underwent rehab only for three weeks for a Grade 3 injury

Recently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly had declared that all of the centrally contracted players would undergo rehab only at the National Cricket Academy. So, where did things go wrong for Ishant Sharma? There have been questions floating around regarding him being diagnosed with a grade three injury for which a three week recovery period is not enough.

There have also been talks regarding whether Ishant forced his way back by pushing his limits, which did not give enough time for his ankle to heal completely. Another thing that adds to the fact that there was indeed something wrong with his rehab is that he was not a part of any competitive match which is a compulsory thing to do for any player before making a return to the highest level of the sport, wherein, the body is pushed to its limits in all ways.