Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 7 (ANI): Indian and West Zone pace bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur expressed that the workload of players 'are being taken for granted' and added that he is also 'open to Mumbai captaincy' following his side's exit from the ongoing Duleep Trophy on Sunday.

West Zone bowed out of the competition, after Central Zone's massive lead of 162 runs in the first innings not only earned them a draw, but also a move to title clash against South Zone.

Speaking after the match as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, Thakur, who went wicketless in his 11 overs and gave away 42 runs, but made it up with a solid half-century, a knock of 64 in the first innings, followed by six in the second, said, 'A lot of times we are taken for granted and the management is not to the highest level. No one actually comes and asks us how our body feels after playing for so many months. But yes, I have been managing my body with physios, S&Cs [Strength & Conditioning coach], doing constant work.'

'And it is about playing cricket. I am not saying that you keep pulling yourself out of playing the games. But frequent breaks here and there are good for the body,' he added.

Starting from the Irani Trophy in October last year, it has been 11 months of hectic cricket for Shardul. He also featured in Ranji Trophy 2024-25, scoring 505 runs in nine matches with a century and four fifties, picking up 35 wickets for semifinalists Mumbai and also represented them in Vijay Hazare Trophy, a one-day tournament, and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, a T20 tournament. After being unsold initially, he was picked up as an injury replacement in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), picking 13 wickets in 10 matches.

Folllowing that, he played two India A games in UK ahead of the five-match Test series in England and played two matches in the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy, picking up two wickets and scoring 40-add runs across three innings, with best score of 41.

Players' workload management have been a hot topic of debate over last few months, especially with pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah being the main character in these conversations because of his history of injuries recently and how brilliant he has been for India in all formats of the game, which makes it important for him to be protected at all costs.

Thakur feels it should be left to players to manage their workloads and fitness and it should not be on their minds during a match.

'Once you enter the game, you can't be talking about workload management because then the game situation also takes over,' he said.

'When you go into the game, you're expected to give your best. Whatever you have in your tank, you have to give it all. And I believe you shouldn't be shying away from coming in and hitting the deck hard in the game, keep doing those efforts. Yes, when you go out of the ground and when you are resting back home or you have those breaks in between the game, that's where you try to manage your bodies and try to manage your load,' he continued.

'If you are not having too much load in the game, then of course you can push yourself in the nets also. But if you're having a big amount of load in the game, then you can take it a little bit easy in the nets,' he added.

Shardul kickstarted the season as a captain for West Zone and with an early exit in the Duleep Trophy, it was a tough start as a captain. The experience of leading Indian stars like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad has given him enough confidence to be a leader as Mumbai leadership spot was vacated by veteran Ajinkya Rahane recently.

' Yes, I am open for the [Mumbai] captaincy. And of course, this was one of the steps where I get that experience of captaincy. It was just my first game and there were a lot of learnings. I wouldn't say that captaincy is difficult, but there are a lot of things which you learn only when you step into the captain's shoes,' he added.

With Ranji Trophy starting from October 15, the all-rounder urged curators for pitches where fast bowlers could come into play on 'sporting' surfaces, unlike the one in their Duleep Trophy semifinal, where he bowled just 11 overs of total 164.3 overs for his side, Arzan Nagwaswalla bowled 14.3 and Tushar Deshpande 17. The rest of the 122 overs were all bowled by spinners.

'The spinners were in the play all the time. There was not much for fast bowlers in the pitch. And it is always going to be a sort of complaint when we play domestic cricket across the country that we do not get enough pitches where fast bowlers could come and bowl 40 overs in a game,' he said.

'Being a fast bowler, I expect that there should be more pitches where the game is even for fast bowlers, for batters and spinners,' he concluded. (ANI)