Fast bowler Shardul Thakur believes players are being "taken for granted" with respect to workload, and that it is "going to be a constant challenge" for a modern-day cricketer to maintain the same levels of fitness all year long with the amount of cricket being played.
"A lot of times we are taken for granted and the management is not to the highest level," Thakur said on the final day of the Duleep Trophy semi-final in Bengaluru. "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's about playing cricket. I'm not saying that you keep pulling yourself out from playing the games. But frequent breaks here and there are good for the body."
It's been over 11 months of non-stop cricket for Thakur. It started with the Irani Trophy in October last year. He then played the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season, Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Initially going unsold, he joined Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in IPL 2025 as an injury replacement, following which he played two tour games for India A against England Lions and was part of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
Players' workload management has been in focus in the last few years. Recently, Jasprit Bumrah played only in three of the five Tests in the tour of England to manage his workload. Thakur believes it should be up to the players on how they manage their fitness and workloads, but said it shouldn't be on their minds during a game.
"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're 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.
"If you're 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."
Shardul Thakur 'open' to captain Mumbai
Thakur began the 2025-26 domestic season as West Zone captain in the Duleep Trophy semi-final, the first time he was leading a team in first-class cricket. It was a tough initiation as West Zone failed to progress to the final, with Central Zone going through after a first-innings lead.
But the experience of leading the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad has given him enough confidence to be a leader, particularly with the Mumbai captaincy up for grabs after Ajinkya Rahane stepped down from the role earlier this year.
"Yes, I am open for the [Mumbai] captaincy," Thakur said. "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."
With the Ranji Trophy season starting from October 15, Thakur has urged curators to produce "sporting pitches" where the fast bowlers can also come into play, unlike the one in the semi-final. Thakur bowled just 11 of the 164.3 overs in the West Zone innings. Arzan Nagwaswalla bowled 14.3 and Tushar Deshpande 17. The rest of the 122 overs were shared between the spinners.
"The spinners were in the play all the time. There was not much for fast bowlers [in the pitch]," Thakur said. "And it's always going to be a sort of complaint when we play domestic cricket across the country that we don't get enough pitches where fast bowlers could come and bowl 40 overs in a game.
"Being a fast bowler, I expect that there should be more pitches where the game is even for fast bowlers, for batters and spinners."