Ahead Of T20 World Cup, India Lags Behind In Preparation As A Unit

Even as other cricketing nations are learning to gel as a team ahead of the T20 World Cup in October-November by playing multiple limited-overs games, especially T20 Internationals, the Indians are ba

Even the Sri Lanka series was hastily arranged and the BCCI did not even make an announcement until it released the team. "The Board has a lot on its plate, to be honest. The COVID-19 situation has made it tough," added the official.

While the World Test Championship (WTC) final was hosted in June, India gear up for the big five-Test series against England to be played across August and September. Within five days of completion of the Test series, the BCCI will organise the remainder of IPL 2021 and within days of its completion, the T20 World Cup would begin.

So the Indian players, spread out in various teams and playing against each other as opponents, will now have to gel in little available time. Since the IPL is a tournament run by BCCI, all the Indian players will have to feature and can't seek a break.

Other countries can take it otherwise. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), for example, has made it clear that their players will have to give national commitments a priority if the matches clash with IPL.

The West Indies board has ensured that all the internationals don't clash either with the IPL or Caribbean Premier League that precedes the IPL.