Srinagar, Sep 30 (IANS) Akash Deep has spent more of the past seven months in gyms, physio rooms and walking on an anti-gravity treadmill than bowling his heart out on a cricket field. When he had his first look at Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium, surrounded by the Shankaracharya Temple, hills and chinar trees, this week for practice with the Rest of India team, it was a moment to savour.
The Irani Cup clash, where Rishabh Pant-led Rest of India face Ranji Trophy champions Jammu and Kashmir from Thursday, is Akash Deep’s first match since a stress fracture of the lower back kept him out of action.
“It’s been great; it’s my first-ever experience of being here. It’s such a nice, clean, and peaceful place. Everything looks very wonderful. It feels really good to be back to playing cricket. There is a feeling of excitement to play this match soon.
“I told my physio that I played against Jammu and Kashmir 7-8 months ago, and now that I am back to playing cricket, I will be up against Jammu and Kashmir again,” Akash told IANS in an exclusive chat on the eve of the clash.
The troubled time for Akash Deep began in February, in the middle of Bengal’s Ranji Trophy semi-final, ironically against Jammu and Kashmir, where he felt pain and tightness. A scan at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru confirmed an L5 stress fracture, and recovery was to be done without any surgical intervention.
After a month’s rest, the exercises, minus the one for his back, began with light weights, and the weights increased slowly. Till the time he got his Return to Play certificate, Akash Deep was rarely alone. “Mostly, our support staff, physios, trainers, and coaches, I would spend a lot of time with them more often. I would stay with them for 4-5 hours every day. They motivated me a lot and kept things simple, which helped me a lot.”
With every decision made for him by the CoE, who have lately got flak for heaps of injuries to players, Akash Deep’s mind was free. “Yes, absolutely. After such a big injury, you just have to wake up in the morning and report on time to be on the right track for recovery. After that, you don’t have to think about anything much mentally.
“But physically, you have to give yourself there. But mentally, you don’t have to think about any planning, or you don’t have to think about what exercise to do, what rehab to do, when to bowl, and how much to bowl. You don’t have to think about anything, and from that point of view, for an athlete, the CoE can only be a big blessing.”
Fellow fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya were also present to speak to Akash Deep. “There was Jassi bhai, there was Hardik bhai, and they used to come for 2-4 days in between. Earlier, they also had such injuries, so how was their experience and how they overcame it – we used to discuss all this a little bit.”
He began bowling only in June with a few overs, before building up gradually to be at full tilt. Time away from the game was hard, but his positive mindset never allowed him to go into the negative space.
“I took it positively. I felt that after playing professional cricket continuously for 10-12 years, I felt like my body needed rest and time to work on other things, so that my professional career could be sustained for a longer period. I felt that I should work on small niggles I had and that I shouldn’t ignore them, and this was my lesson from it.”
The rebuilding, he says, was more about awareness rather than technique. “Technically, we can’t do much because we have been playing for 10-12 years. Our body has gotten used to it. It’s just that there are a few things to observe by yourself.
“To understand your body, I have worked on that. For example, when to put yourself in preparation for a match, then when to stop, and how much effort has to be put in, I was trying to observe myself in practice for all these things.”
By the time he passed his RTP and got the fitness certificate, Akash Deep was excited like a kid at a candy store to take the field again. “I was feeling really good about being fit. But it also happens that when you are at one place for seven months, you get the sad feeling that it is time for me to leave now. At the same time, I was excited to play a few matches quickly and see how my body is reacting because all these things can be understood only by playing in a match.”
Long spells will be the real test for him in the autumn vibes of Srinagar. “To put in long spells, the biggest preparation is in practice. Like how many long spells to put in practice, how much time to bowl, how many balls to put in – I did all those things in practice. When I play the match, I will be able to understand my body’s condition in the match itself – how much time to put in, how much effort to put in for bowling overs.”
The mood in the Pant-led Rest of India camp, comprising other capped players Sarfaraz Khan, Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain, is pretty relaxed. “Yes, it’s very chill. The atmosphere of the Rest of India team is always chill, because the players come from different places and environments, so the atmosphere is always chill.”
Now that Akash Deep’s time away from the game will end, eyes will be on how quickly he regains rhythm and picks scalps with the red ball, especially with India set to play two Tests in New Zealand in November, where he will look to add to the 28 scalps taken in ten games so far.
There’s also a matter of selection for a shadow tour to be done by the ‘A’ team, but for now, after having spent months adhering to a strictly monitored regimen, Akash Deep’s focus is to bowl in such a way that people won’t think that he was away from action.
“Nothing much will be on my mind. I will focus on what I have been doing for so many days, and just have to repeat the same thing. The endeavour is to make sure that the people who know me really well should feel that I am playing in such a manner that one shouldn’t feel like I was out of action for seven months.
“I am trying that when the ball is in my hand, I do what I want to do while bowling that ball and in that particular over to the best of my abilities. After that, the result will come in my hands,” he signed off.
–IANS
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