BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia to meet VVS Laxman at CoE amid India's fitness concerns

BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia is set to travel to Bengaluru on August 9, 2026, for a meeting with Head of Cricket VVS Laxman at the Centre of Excellence. The purpose of the visit is to take direct stock of the ongoing rehabilitation programme at a time when an unusually large group of Indian cricketers are sidelined with injuries ahead of the Test tour of Sri Lanka.

It is evident that the BCCI's attention has been drawn to the accumulation of fitness concerns across both the Test and white-ball squads. Saikia's presence at the Centre of Excellence is intended to give the board a first-hand picture of where each player stands in their recovery.

Among the Test squad, Jasprit Bumrah is dealing with left knee swelling and has been ruled out of the Sri Lanka series. Akash Deep has been sidelined the longest within the group, having sustained a lower-back stress fracture. Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy are both nursing hamstring injuries, while Washington Sundar is working through a quadriceps injury. B Sai Sudharsan has also been ruled out with a toe injury.

In the white-ball side, Hardik Pandya, Varun Chakravarthy and Prince Yadav are all recuperating at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. The sheer volume of players in rehabilitation simultaneously has brought the BCCI's sports science and medical infrastructure under scrutiny. Nitin Patel, who held the permanent sports science head role, left the position in early 2025. Dhananjay Kaushik is currently serving as interim sports science head and is overseeing operations at the centre.

"Yes, secretary Saikia will be in Bengaluru to take a stock of the situation along with VVS Laxman. There is a meeting scheduled between the two. It is not known whether head coach of national team Gautam Gambhir or chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar will join online or not. It will be interesting if both Saikia and Laxman can front up and answer a few media queries with so many conjectures," a BCCI source was quoted as saying by Deccan Herald.

The August 9 meeting between Saikia and Laxman represents the next confirmed administrative step in the BCCI's review of the rehabilitation setup. The discussion is expected to cover the individual progress of every player currently at the Centre of Excellence, giving the board a clearer picture before any decisions are made regarding the Sri Lanka tour.

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No announcements regarding player availability or potential replacements for the Sri Lanka tour have been made ahead of the visit.