IPL franchises are the owners now, they will take the call - Rohit Sharma on players workload management

India's all-format captain Rohit Sharma said its up to the IPL franchises now to takecare of World Cup-bound players workload management. Following the Chennai ODI against Australia, all players will now wear their respective IPL kits as the 16th edition of the cash-rich league begins on March 31st.

Concerned about the crunch window of mere two weeks between the IPL 2023 final and the 2023 WTC final, Rohit said the board and the team management has already informed about the same to all the franchises, and now the ball is in their court.

"It's all up to the franchise now. Franchises own them now. We've given them some indications or some kind of border line kind of things to teams. But at the end of the day, it's up to the franchises and most importantly it's the players. They have to take care of their own body. They are all adults. So, they have to look after their body and adjust if they feel like it's getting a little too much, they can always talk about it and have a break in 1-2 games. I doubt that'll happen but," Rohit said after the end of the third ODI against Australia in Chennai as quoted by Cricbuzz.

These words have come on the back of the latest concerns regarding certain players who have missed extended amount of cricket due toinjuries. While star seamer Jasprit Bumrah is out since September last year due to the back injury and is expected to spend more time on sidelines, middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer has also suffered the similar injury, and is ruled out for indefinite time. Just to put salt to injuries, keeper-batter Rishabh Pant is also not around – having suffered injuries in the road accident late last year.

With all these absentees, India has missed out on several chances of playing their best XI in important matches.

"Look it is concerning because if the players are not available it is concerning. And we are missing players who are actually Playing XI players. They regularly play in the playing XI. Honestly, everyone is trying their best to get everyone on the park. We've been focussing a lot on management of the players a lot.

“Which is why you keep seeing, we have to rest certain players at certain points of time. From our side we could do our best in terms of handling them. I mean, I'm not a specialist to tell you why the recurring injuries are happening. Of course, the medical team of ours is definitely looking into all of this and making sure, that come the World Cup we've got our best 15 players ready," Rohit added.

Initially, the board had also informed after discussing with the captain and the head coach, around 17-18 players are short-listed for the 50-over World Cup later this year; the franchises are made aware of the same and that they are now responsible for those players workload management.

The 16th season of IPL 2023 begins on March 31st.