Ahead of the IPL, captain Virat Kohli had urged his teammates to play smart cricket during IPL 2019 and stay away from the slightest of niggles or stress before World Cup 2019. On Monday, legendary Sachin Tendulkar reiterated Virat Kohli’s words while also providing a piece of special advice for India’s World Cup-bound players.
“Preparation before the World Cup is different for each player and so their workload management will also be different,” Tendulkar told PTI during an exclusive interaction.
Sachin then agreed with Kohli’s comment on players deciding for themselves on how much game time they can provide during IPL 2019 as there is no cap on participation throughout the one-and-a-half-month-long tournament.
“To me, momentum is important. Every individual should be smart enough to assess if he needs to take a break or he needs to play games to stay in the thick of things. So the responsibility is on the individual to take a call,” said the Master Blaster.
Sachin then exemplified his statement on how the workload will be different from player to player. “As a pace bowler, Jasprit Bumrah’s workload will be very different from a pure batsman like Virat Kohli and a wicket-keeper batsman like Mahendra Singh Dhoni. All these players have a lot of experience and they will certainly make the right call,” he said.
Earlier last week, after India’s 2-3 loss to Australia in India’s last ODI series before World Cup, Kohli had expressed his concern over the issue while also throwing in his advice for the players.
“If I’m able to play 10, 12 or 15 games, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the other guy can only play that many. My body might demand I play a certain number of games and I need to be smart about that and rest,” the Indian skipper had said. “Someone else’s body might be more capable than mine or less, that is a very individual thing. And everyone wants to play the World Cup, so people will be smart about it because you don’t want to miss out on such a big event.”
“And to continue the frame of mind we have created in the Indian team – strive towards excellence and improve every day. Each player will take this tournament as an opportunity to go to the World Cup in a good frame of mind,” he added.
