Don't play the Asia Cup, says Virender Sehwag
What's the story?
Former Indian cricketer, Virender Sehwag, recently stated that India should not contest in the Asia Cup this year, expressing his disapproval over the inefficient scheduling of the tournament.
"Why is there such hue and cry overplaying the Asia Cup? Don't play the Asia Cup. Prepare the team for the home series or the away series. It's really difficult to play back-to-back games," said the former opening batsman in a conversation with IndiaTV.
"I am really shocked to see the scheduling because which country plays back-to-back cricket matches these days? There was a gap of two days in between the T20 matches in England and here you are playing ODIs under hot Dubai weather and that too without a break. So, I don't think this is a correct scheduling," he added.
In case you didn't know..
The Indian Cricket Team will play their opening game of the tournament against a qualifier on September 18, before taking on arch-rivals, Pakistan, on the very next day. This means that the gap between the two matches will be curtailed to less than 24 hours.
Also read: Asia Cup 2018 schedule announced, India to play two ODIs in two days
The details
Sehwag further stated that for any player to be at his best on the cricket pitch, he must get a layoff of at least 48 hours between two consecutive games.
He also said that if BCCI really wanted to reduce the workload on its players, the board should've canceled the first match against the qualifier instead of reducing the ongoing tour match in England to three days.
What next?
The workload on Indian cricketers like Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Shikhar Dhawan, and Umesh Yadav will certainly be stretched to the hilt in the next couple of months, considering they have been contesting in all formats of the game since the IPL this year.
It remains to see if the Indian board will take Sehwag's warning seriously to try and optimize their assignments.