The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has lifted the projected 2026-27 spending of its Centre of Excellence (CoE) to ₹127 crore (approx. US$13 million), according to a report by Times of India, as injuries keep disrupting the national setup. Actual expenses last year stood at ₹92 crore (approx. US$9.6 million), so the increase is nearly ₹35 crore (approx. US$3.6 million). The CoE’s expenses cover administration, courses and match costs, and the rise comes as the facility’s injury management programme faces renewed attention. The increase follows concerns raised by Captain Shubman Gill and Head Coach Gautam Gambhir about how difficult the frequent breakdowns have made it to plan tours.
Soft-tissue injuries dominate the caseload
Most cases were soft-tissue injuries, the strains, tears and inflammation that affect muscles, tendons and ligaments and are linked more closely to fatigue and workload than to collisions. Rishabh Pant is the only impact injury mentioned, having fractured his foot during the Test in Manchester in July 2025. The list has grown further since IPL 2026, which ended with a surge of medical visits after a gruelling two-month schedule of high-intensity cricket and constant travel, and at least two players have broken down in each series since.
Scale of the rehabilitation workload
Between April 2025 and March 2026, 32 top men’s players underwent rehabilitation at the CoE, according to its annual report. Twenty of them were centrally contracted by the BCCI and 12 came from a newer targeted or India ‘A’ category. Across both men’s and women’s cricket, the BCCI-CoE Sports Science Medicine (SSM) team treated and managed injuries to 68 players over the past 20 months.
Players in the rehabilitation unit
Rohit Sharma completed rehabilitation at the CoE during the period, last reporting for a hamstring injury following this year’s IPL, though the BCCI never made an official statement about it. The latest Team India names added up to September 30 are Virat Kohli, Varun Chakravarthy, Prince Yadav and Harsh Dubey, alongside several targeted players. Kohli, long regarded as a benchmark of athletic fitness, made his first visit to the Bengaluru facility this year to manage physical wear and tear.
Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Hardik Pandya and Prasidh Krishna have all returned to the CoE more than once. Bumrah and Pandya are regular visitors who manage heavy workloads to prevent bigger breakdowns, while Rana, Prasidh and Reddy have worked on lower-body and workload-related problems. Rana, Pandya and Reddy have each spent at least four months at the facility over the last 18 months, and the report does not say how many times each player reported.
Scrutiny on the national setup
The criticism has landed on the national setup too, with Gill and Gambhir under scrutiny over fitness standards and rotation policies. Former India opener Wasim Jaffer questioned the selection and rotation of experienced pacers such as Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, arguing that leaving Shami out places an unbearable burden on Bumrah.
Past spikes and the road to the CoE
Soft-tissue problems are not new for Indian cricket. The last comparable run came in 2021-22, when players left the Covid-19 bubbles, and it was brought under control within two to three months. A three-month phase of breakdowns also followed the drastic fitness changes Shanker Basu introduced in 2017. The National Cricket Academy, the CoE’s precursor, had been criticised in 2017 and 2018 for inadequate injury management, and the fitness overhaul under Basu that followed helped make India one of the fittest teams in world cricket.
Gaps in management and communication
The post of SSM head at the CoE has been vacant since Nitin Patel resigned in March 2025, and the BCCI advertised it only last month. Dhananjay Kaushik currently oversees operations under CoE Chief VVS Laxman. According to the report, communication between Team India’s SSM staff and the CoE’s team has broken down, with the cricket head the only link between them.
Team India’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Adrian Le Roux suggested changes to workload routines in June 2025, but the CoE has been reluctant to move away from its own methods. CoE staff did travel to domestic tournaments to monitor key India players under the injury prevention and management programme.
Budgeted camps and the training block
Fifteen of the 57 budgeted camps and tournaments were not held in the last audited year. The CoE did run 25 elite and high-performance camps across age groups and genders, plus special camps for the north-eastern states and courses for strength and conditioning coaches, other coaches and match officials. It also launched a ‘training block’ programme focused on strength and skill work, which 37 players used, 11 of them contracted and 26 from the India ‘A’ and targeted pool.
The World Cup backdrop
The ODI World Cup 2027, to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, is less than a year away, and the 50-over format places heavy strain on pacers and all-rounders through long spells and quick turnarounds. That raises the stakes on player availability, particularly when core players such as Bumrah, Pandya and Rohit have dealt with recurring injuries. With the CoE’s funding raised and its leadership post still unfilled, the BCCI’s applications for a full-time SSM head are the next development to watch.
