Former India head coach Ravi Shastri made his views on injury-time management clear during IPL 2026 commentary on Tuesday, highlighting the “right” response when a player is hurt mid-match. While working the Chennai Super Kings versus Kolkata Knight Riders game, Shastri was visibly pleased to see CSK pacer Khaleel Ahmed choose to step off the field for treatment instead of calling physios onto the ground and dragging the contest out longer than necessary. The point of comparison, for Shastri, was the approach taken by Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their most recent outing, which had run for four and a half hours.
Khaleel had felt discomfort in his leg during the match against the Knight Riders and, as a result, he disrupted his own rhythm by halting his run-up a couple of times. Rather than trying to push through the pain, the left-arm quick opted to leave the playing area and get attended to, with Gurjapneet Singh completing the over in his place. Shastri, watching closely as the game moved on, praised the decision as a way to prevent unnecessary delays and keep the match flowing.
In his commentary, Shastri contrasted CSK’s handling of the situation with RCB’s earlier approach against the Mumbai Indians. He suggested that, if a player is clearly unable to continue, stepping away can be more efficient than repeated stoppages, especially when the same outcome is likely anyway. “Rather than calling the physio and wasting ten minutes only to do the same thing, he has decided to walk off,” Shastri said on air as Khaleel left the pitch, allowing play to continue without further interruption.
Earlier in the season, that same theme had come under heavy criticism during the RCB versus MI contest. RCB’s Rasikh Dar received treatment on the field three separate times within a single over, as the team’s management opted for repeated on-ground interventions rather than a more straightforward swap similar to what happened in the CSK match—where Khaleel’s over was completed by Gurjapneet after Khaleel stepped off.
Sunil Gavaskar, also part of the commentary team for the RCB–MI game, had been equally irritated by the time consumed by the repeated physio visits. He questioned whether the same pattern would keep repeating and urged a simpler process: “Just go off the field, get treatment, and then come back… This is the third time the physio has come in. Are we going to see the same thing over and over again?” Gavaskar said during that match.
On Tuesday, Shastri effectively echoed Gavaskar’s frustration, with Khaleel’s decision and CSK’s management of the incident presented as an example of how such injury situations can be handled more cleanly—prioritising player care while minimising disruption to the game’s momentum.
