Dedicated NCA team of three working with Bumrah as pacer races against time to get fit

New Delhi: India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has recently completed his five-week off-loading and has started his rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy even as he races against time to get match-fit for the Champions Trophy.

Off-loading is a concept where an athlete is advised complete rest, including staying away from gym work.

The BCCI has put an iron curtain on the information coming out of NCA, and save four-five people associated with the centre of excellence and the Indian cricket team, no one else has an accurate information about the pacer's latest fitness status.

However, PTI has learnt about the core team that is working with Bumrah at Bengaluru, as it tries its best to get one of the biggest match-winners of the Indian cricket team back on the park.

For the rehabilitation process of an injured centrally-contracted player, the norm for NCA is to allot one strength-and-conditioning coach, one physio for injury monitoring and a bowling or batting coach to monitor the skills part, which is also a part of Return To Play (RTP).

"Strength and Conditioning (S&C) coach Rajnikanth Sivagnanam and physio Thulasi Ram Yuvraj are currently working on Bumrah's rehabilitation with Head of Sports Science, Dr Nitin Patel, personally monitoring the whole process.

"Obviously, the national team S&C coach Soham Desai and physio Kamlesh Jain are also kept in the loop," a senior BCCI official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

There were some social media reports that Bumrah is working with Desai at NCA but the latter is travelling with the Indian team for the ongoing series against England and is also expected to head to Dubai as part of the support staff for the Champions Trophy.

If and when Bumrah is allowed to bowl, it is expected that Troy Cooley will be monitoring that part, and the final report prepared by Patel about his availability will be sent to BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Rohit Sharma will also be notified about Bumrah's status.

While the BCCI can straightaway name Harshit Rana as Bumrah's replacement if he fails to get ready in time, it is expected that the team would wait till last moment in order to get him ready for the marquee ICC event. PTI KHS AM KHS AM AM