Focus on the fitness mantra

Kohli was proud of his longevity after scoring his 29th Test ton. The other Indian players need to also stay free of injuries

- Aditya Chaturvedi

MUMBAI: When it comes to the Indian men's cricket team, one word that's been heard repeatedly at tosses for some time now is 'niggle'. For the second Test against West Indies at Port-ofSpain, skipper Rohit Sharma used that term to explain allrounder Shardul Thakur's nonavailability.

Now, it could even be understood that 'niggle' is used as a courtesy to the player being replaced if the team wants to try a new combination. But that would be conjecture. For those on the outside, when players are ruled out due to niggles it simply means they have an injury.

It's been a particularly challenging phase for the Indian team in this regard. On Friday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India put out a rare update on injuries to some of the most established players.

While Rishabh Pant is on the long road to recovery after his horrific road accident last year, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer are all expected to regain full fitness soon after undergoing surgery.

That's a lot of big names on the comeback trail. Even for India, which has a powerful cricketing ecosystem and wealth of talent, the senior team has been pegged back at different stages due to the absence of these key players.