New Delhi: Mohammad Shami is understood to have only asked that he be completely rested for the Tests and ODIs against the West Indies because he needs to be fresh for the gruelling season that lies ahead of them when he approached head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma following the WTC final match against Australia. And it's clear that the selection committee gave Shami the break he wanted without even pausing to think about it.

The choice to rest Shami for the Caribbean tour has gone unnoticed amid the controversy surrounding the team selection. India, which often has an extremely busy calendar, will have a rare month off starting on June 11 after the World Test Championship final. The West Indies will be their opponents in their next Test, which begins on July 12. The majority of the players have left on holiday, and some have even asked the Indian cricket board to postpone their trip to the Caribbean for a few days because they have a busy three months from September until the World Cup's conclusion in November.

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Teams typically want to bubble-wrap their key players at this point in the season with the World Cup just around the corner. Shami's rest is therefore not surprising; especially in light of the volume of overs he has sent down this year in all formats, including the Indian Premier League.

It's intriguing that Shami offered to ask for a break. Shami is a strong proponent of the old school of fast bowling, which holds that the more you bowl, the better you grow, according to his instructor Badruddin Siddique.

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But even the legendary Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath believes that fast bowlers who compete in all three forms need take regular breaks.

“Every 12 months, I think you need a bit of a break to get strong and fit again. So your body can withstand the stresses of fast bowling because it is not a natural thing. That’s up to the individual to actually take that rest when he feels he needs it. And it depends on the sort of longevity they want, what formats they want to play, how they want to go about it,” McGrath, who is the Director of Cricket at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, told.

Having an off-season, according to McGrath, who played 124 Tests, 250 ODIs, and T20 Internationals throughout his illustrious career, which included three World Cup victories, is a must in this day and age. Prior to the 2008 debut of the IPL, India's off-season ran from April to July. However, due to the condensed international schedule, this gap no longer exists for players anywhere in the world. Australia and England have been leaders in workload management because they have given their fast bowlers the freedom to select the formats they want to play in. This enables them to take self-inflicted off-seasons, which they use to recover and gain strength.

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