SRI LANKA TOUR OF INDIA 2017

Kohli explains India's approach to workload management

by Prakash Govindasreenivasan • Last updated on

Kohli explained how rest and recovery is likely to differ for each individual based on how much he has had to contribute over a period of time. © BCCI

"I am not a robot, you can slice my skin and check, I bleed."

Virat Kohlihad quite a closing statement while providing his take on workload management and why some players need rest more than others, despite playing the same number of games over a long period of time. The Indian captain took strong objection to how India's attempt to manage workload of its players is being perceived, and went on to dive deep into the matter to provide clarity.

"Look, this is one thing that people don't explain properly. Lot of things are being spoken about. There's a lot of talk from the outside, whether a player should be rested or not be rested," he said on the eve of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Kolkata on Wednesday (November 15).In the recent event of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja being rested, epitaphs of their limited-overs career began to get scripted, even as coach Ravi Shastri clearly stated that the pair were merely being given a break. And rightly so.

Ashwin has nearly played one-third the number of his Tests (16 out of 52) since last September, sending down as many as 884 overs. Ravindra Jadeja's numbers are up there too - 825.4 overs in the same period. Together they've anchored India through an immensely successful season at home and a series in Sri Lanka, and thereby earning a breather while India played limited-overs cricket.

Kohli explained how a lot of factors are taken into consideration before making such a decision, and how rest and recovery is likely to differ for each individual based on how much he has had to contribute over a period of time.

"For example - All cricketers play 40 games a year, three guys who should get rest, their workloads are to be managed. Eleven players play the game, but not everyone would've batted 45 overs in the ODI game, or bowled 35 overs in a Test match.

"The guys who are doing that regularly are the ones that need to be assessed. Because the body takes that much to recover and it needs rest as well. People only look at 'oh everyone has played 40 games', they don't look at time spent on the crease, the number of runs that have been run between the wickets, the number of overs they have been bowling in difficult conditions.

"What are the conditions, what were the temperatures like, have the bodies recovered or not. I don't think people go into that analyis. From the outside it looks like 'why are people asking for rest, everyone has played same number of games' but not everyone has the same kind of workload in every kind of game you play.

"People who have major workload, for example - a Pujara during a Test season, he'll have maximum workload because he'll spend so much time on the crease. His game is built that way. You cannot compare that to say, a counter-attacking player because the workload would've been different. So I think all these things have to be taken into consideration."

If you observe carefully, nearly every answer in a Kohli press conference will invariably have the mention of 'intensity' and the need for maintaining it. His rationale - and thus India's - behind being meticulous in managing workload is also keeping in mind that the standards and the said intensity, after such a good period of success - doesn't begin to drop.

"Purely because of the fact that we've built such a strong core team now of 20-25 players. You don't want important players breaking down at important times for the team. That is where the balance needs to be maintained going forward because if you have too much cricket going on, specially guys playing all three formats, it is humanly impossible to maintain the same intensity and same level of performance as you do in the earlier phase of the season. I think those details are very important when you consider workload management," Kohli opined.

Kohli too has nearly run himself to the ground with the amount of cricket he has played in the last year-and-a-half. For a multi-format captain and match-winner, where then does he stand as far as cooling his heels for a while is concerned?

"Definitely, I do need a rest. Why not. When I think of the time when my body needs to be rested, I'll ask for it."

© Cricbuzz

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