“How can the main players play all the games?” - Aakash Chopra explains why India caps are being handed out 'easily'
Former cricketer Aakash Chopra has admitted that getting the Indian cap has become easier these days for players. However, he attributed the change to the crammed cricketing schedule, pointing out that it is practically impossible for the main players to feature in every match.
In recent years, the Men in Blue have handed out white ball debuts to a number of cricketers like Harshal Patel, Suryakumar Yadav, Avesh Khan, Deepak Hooda and Arshdeep Singh among others. Even the comparatively inexperienced Umran Malik made his T20I debut against Ireland recently.
In a Q&A session on his YouTube channel, Chopra was asked for his thoughts on the Indian think tank handing debuts to so many players in a short span of time. Referring to Ben Stokes’ ODI retirement, he replied:
“Ben Stokes’ incident has made us realize that players are saying, ‘that’s enough. I will quit international cricket and play for my franchise’. He is right. You need to give players a break. Too much cricket is being played.”
Elaborating on the jam-packed cricketing schedule, he added:
“Players are moving from one series to another across continents, all in the space of a week. In short, almost every day the cricketers are playing some match or the other. In such a scenario, how can the main players play all the games? You have to give chances to others.”
Chopra continued:
“The team will now go to Zimbabwe, so the Indian cap will again be given out a little easily, unfortunately. If the schedule is so tight, everyone cannot play every game.”
The Indian ODI squad is currently in the West Indies for a three-match series, which will get underway on July 22 in Trinidad. The team is being led by senior batter Shikhar Dhawan in the absence of regular captain Rohit Sharma.
“We are not cars. You can't just fill us up” - Ben Stokes on "unsustainable" schedule
After announcing his one-day retirement, England all-rounder Stokes lamented that he couldn’t give his 100 percent to the ODI format due to an unrelenting schedule in place. Sharing his views on BBC’s Test Match Special, he said:
"We are not cars. You can't just fill us up and we'll go out there and be ready to be fuelled up again. We had a Test series and then the one-day team had a series going on at the same time - that was a bit silly.”
Stokes added:
"I just feel like there is too much cricket rammed in for people to play all three formats now. It is a lot harder than it used to be. I look back to when I used to do all three and it didn't feel like it was as jam-packed and all that.”
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Stokes’ shock retirement from the one-day format at the age of 31 has led to a massive debate in cricketing circles over the "unsustainable" schedule.