‘Calendar too hectic’: Former IPL Chairman backs Virat Kohli’s criticism of India’s tight scheduling
Team India captain Virat Kohli questioned the scheduling of India's calendar ahead of the T20I series against New Zealand. Five days after the side beat Australia in an ODI series at home, they were to take on New Zealand in Auckland and this did not please the Indian captain.
Before the first T20I against the Kiwis, Kohli had said: “It’s getting closer and closer to landing at the stadium straight. That’s how compressed the gap has become. This kind of travelling to a place that is seven and a half hours ahead of IST is difficult to adjust immediately.”
Now, former IPL commissioner Rajiv Shukla has come out in agreement with the Indian captain as he too believes the schedule is crammed and that the calendar is too hectic. He added: “Hopefully, this will be taken into consideration in the future. But this is the year of the World Cup and every T20 is important. So we can’t lose our focus.”
India is scheduled to play five T20Is, three ODIs, and two Tests against New Zealand.
"The last series we played against Australia was ODIs so we spent more time on the field, but we played a few T20s before that. Having played a lot more cricket than just T20s in the last three games, we will find it easier to come here and play even though with less time (to prepare)," Kohli further added.
After India smashed New Zealand in the first T20I, Kohli, however, said that the side never spoke about any sort of jet lag as they did not want to divert their attention from the work at hand.
"We enjoyed it. Just landing two days ago and playing a game like this sets it up for the whole tour. We had great support. We had 80% of India fans here and the atmosphere was great. You need that in a 200-plus chase, they help us go further, be braver. We never spoke of jet lag. We don't want to use as an excuse. If we focus on things that aren't important then you're taking attention away," Kohli said after the win.