'Players are mentally drained, they don't run on petrol': Shastri
The 59-year-old has said that Team India's poor outing in the 2021 T20 World Cup is partly due to the exhaustion due to an extended bio-secure bubble.
Team India's outgoing head coach Ravi Shastri has warned that cricketers might opt to pull out of international commitments if the cricket boards around the world and International Cricket Council (ICC) doesn't address their mental fatigue. After playing in a bio-secure bubble for the past six months, Shastri spoke about the "mental and physical" drain among Team India players. India failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the T20 World Cup.
The 59-year-old has said that Team India's poor outing in the 2021 T20 World Cup is partly due to the exhaustion due to an extended bio-secure bubble.
"I won't give excuse, but we are living in the bio-secure bubble for the past six months. We would have ideally liked a bigger gap between the IPL and the World Cup. These are all human beings, they don't run on petrol!" Shastri said on Star Sports before India's last Super 12 match against Namibia which they won by 9 wickets.
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"I am mentally drained and I expect that at my age, but these guys need rest to recover from mental and physical fatigue," he added further.
Shastri insisted that the current Indian team is a "winning team," and that a lack of attention to the players' mental well-being could hamper the side's progress.
"All cricket boards and the ICC need to think about how they are going to handle the players' mental fatigue. Because after some time, you will see players starting to pull out from future series if we continue to play in such bubbles. You can make changes and ask youngsters to fill in, but India is playing at the end of the day, and that is how people will remember it. And let me tell you, this Indian team is a winning team," said Shastri.
The outgoing head coach said that the X-Factor in the Indian team was missing, and the side wasn't "switched on" as it should have due to fatigue.
"It's when the big games come and when the pressure hits you - you are not that switched on as you should be. And it's not an excuse. We take defeat because we are not scared of losing. Because in trying to win, you will lose a game. Here we didn't try to win because that X-factor was missing," he said.
