This Indian cricketer was most tested for dope in 2023 so far, its not Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya
The Indian cricket team plays cricket all year, and the players are the busiest in the world, playing both international cricket and the two-month-long Indian Premier League. Did you know that Indian cricketers, like Olympic competitors, are tested for doping? If you haven't already guessed, the answer is yes.
According to a report provided by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), 55 cricketers (both men's and women's) were tested this year through May. This amounts to 58 samples in total. More than half of these samples were removed from competition.
More cricketers are expected to be tested by NADA this year. A total of 54 and 60 samples were obtained from cricketers in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
One player has been tested three times this year, the most this year, out of the 55 cricketers who have been tested the most times by NADA in 2023. Ravindra Jadeja is India's all-rounder. Between January and May, the cricketer was tested three times. On February 19, March 26, and April 26, Jadeja was tested. What's more, neither Virat Kohli nor India captain Rohit Sharma have been tested once in the first five months of 2023.
Hardik Pandya, India's T20I skipper, was tested once in April. He was put to an Out of Competition test. He provided a Urine sample.
Rohit was the most tested cricketer in 2021 and 2022, giving his sample three times each. Kohli, on the other hand, has yet to be tested between 2021 and 2023.
Only two female cricketers have undergone testing. Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana are their names. They were eliminated from the competition after providing urine samples in January.
During the IPL, NADA collected 20 samples from cricketers. T Natarajan, India's left-arm pacer, was also tested twice, once by urine and once via blood sample, on April 27.
Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Mohammed Siraj, Deepak Chahar, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha, Dinesh Karthik, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ambati Rayudu, Piyush Chawla, and Manish Pandey are among those who will be tested by NADA in 2023.
Not to mention that some international players were detected for doping. David Wiese, David Miller, Cameron Green, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, David Warner, Rashid Khan, David Willey, Trent Boult, Marcus Stoinis, Mark Wood, Adam Zampa, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, and Jofra Archer are the names on the team.
All of these player evaluations took place during the sixteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2023).