NCA under scanner after Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s sports hernia

The National Cricket Academy (NCA) has come under the microscope after Bhuvneshwar Kumar was ruled out due to a sports hernia. The speedster made his return to international cricket during India’s three-match T20I series against the West Indies. After going wickeless in the first two games, the Uttar Pradesh seamer picked up a couple in the last match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Prior to that, he took part in two games in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy after the NCA declared him fit. Kumar was also a part of the ODI series, but got ruled out and was replaced by Shardul Thakur. Now the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is looking to delve deep into how the NCA has been performing. BCCI secretary Jay Shah has asked the NCA to share Bhuvneshwar’s medical report.

NCA under potential trouble

“He clearly wants to get to the bottom of everything at the NCA. Somebody needs to take a good look at how the country’s premier academy has been rotting at all levels,” sources were quoted as saying in The Times of India (TOI).

“There are individuals who have been hired on a permanent basis at the NCA without even having to undergo interviews for the job. Worse, those who went through interviews have been handed contracts.”

“BCCI should look into the cases of individuals who have lied in their joining letters regarding conflict and have taken permanent jobs despite serious conflicts and are drawing fat salaries,” sources added.

Earlier, it was learned that Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s sports hernia couldn’t be detected in three different scans at a private clinic. In the end, it was Team India’s physiotherapist, who came up with the correct diagnosis.

Bhuvneshwar fighting with injuries

Bhuvneshwar has had his tussles with injuries ever since 2018. He suffered from back injuries and didn’t feature regularly in India’s tour of England. Even in the 2019 World Cup, he walked off midway during the match against Pakistan at the Old Trafford in Manchester after tweaking a hamstring.

Recently, he missed India’s home series versus South Africa and Bangladesh. After the ODIs against West Indies, India are scheduled to play a couple of home series in January 2020 against Australia and Sri Lanka. It remains to be seen whether the speedster can recover for those series or not.