BCCI Tightens Player Fitness Protocols After Late Withdrawals
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has quietly redrawn the lines on player fitness, and the message from Mumbai to the dressing room is blunt: no more gambles.
Scarred by a string of late withdrawals and mid-tour exits, the BCCI, its selection committee and the Centre of Excellence (CoE) headed by VVS Laxman have moved to a far stricter clearance protocol before a player can be declared available for India duty. The aim is simple—pick a squad that actually turns up.
Harshit Rana, and a turning point
Harshit Rana’s recent ordeal sits at the heart of this shift.
After five months out, the fast bowler finally made his international return in June, named for the tours of Ireland and England. It should have been a fresh start. Instead, it lasted less than a fortnight. He broke down again, could not complete the England leg and was sent home, with Prince Yadav rushed in as replacement.
Inside the corridors of power, that episode has become a cautionary tale.
The new mantra, as one source familiar with the policy put it, is ruthless: they do not just want to be 100 per cent sure of a player’s readiness, they want to be “200 per cent” convinced before releasing him for selection. No more rolling the dice on half-fit stars.
Rana’s case is not an outlier. Jasprit Bumrah and Sai Sudharsan were both originally picked for the Sri Lanka Tests, only to be replaced by Auqib Nabi and Sarfaraz Khan. Suryansh Shedge was drafted in at the last moment for Nitish Kumar Reddy for the Ireland and England tour. Varun Chakaravarthy dropped out of the Zimbabwe trip, with Ravi Bishnoi stepping in at the eleventh hour.
One or two such calls can be written off as bad luck. A pattern like this forces a rethink.
Conditional picks and visible asterisks
The response has been sharp. The CoE is now walking a distinctly cautious line, and that shift is already visible in India’s recent squad announcements.
Some names now come with an asterisk.
In Tuesday’s media release for the T20I series against Afghanistan, Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Nitish Reddy and Rana were all listed as conditional selections—picked, but only if they clear fitness tests closer to the series.
Laxman has been keen to frame this not as secrecy, but as clarity.
“They (players) understand that they're not yet ready to participate in the national series. It's always player-centric and team-centric. So that communication is happening seamlessly,” he said in a recent interaction, stressing that the BCCI has brought “transparency in all the fitness reports and also in the selection.”
He pointed to the wording in the squad releases: when a player is marked “subject to fitness”, it is not a throwaway line. Contingency plans are already in place.
“At the end of the selection, whether it's a release to the press, it's clearly mentioned that these players are picked subject to fitness. Means if they don't clear the fitness test, the selectors will know who are the other players who will go in their place if they don't clear the fitness test. I mean, it's basic common sense,” Laxman said.
The message to fans and players is the same: no surprises, only updates.
Selection three weeks out, fitness on the clock
BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia lifted the lid on the mechanics behind those asterisks.
Selection meetings, he explained, typically happen three to four weeks before the team departs. At that point, several players can still be in the final stages of rehabilitation. Writing them off entirely would be premature; rubber-stamping them would be reckless.
“So if he gets picked within that period of 21 or 28 days, he will be taken into the team,” Saikia said, outlining the window in which a player can prove his fitness.
“So that is precisely why we do not outrightly reject him because on the date of selection, we are rejecting him because on that day he is not fit. But, by the time it will be effectively required for the travel or to play the match, by that time he may be totally fit.”
The compromise is the conditional tag: a place in the squad on paper, with a final decision parked until the medical team signs off.
Bumrah expected, Reddy progressing, others in limbo
Behind the official language, there is guarded optimism on some fronts.
Those tracking the situation say Bumrah, despite the asterisk next to his name, is expected to be available for the three-match Afghanistan series starting September 13 in New Delhi. The selectors are understood to be confident he will be ready when it matters.
Nitish Reddy is on a similar path. The all-rounder, recovering from a quadriceps injury, has started bowling six to seven overs a day at full intensity at the CoE. The indication from those in the know is that he should be fit for the Delhi games if his progress holds.
The picture is murkier for Rana and Washington Sundar. Their timelines are less clear, and the mood around them is far more guarded.
“The CoE will not take chances,” the source said, underlining the new hard line.
India’s bench is deep, and talent keeps coming. The real challenge now is not just finding the next name, but ensuring that when the team sheet goes up, every name on it is truly ready to play.
