IPL will be perfect season starter, but a camp must before that: Chahar

By Baidurjo Bhose

New Delhi, June 5 (SocialNews.XYZ) Deepak Chahar was cementing his place in the Indian team when he suffered a stress fracture in December 2019. The injury-induced break has overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic and the youngster is now back on his toes and raring to go. In fact, the pacer believes that a camp followed by the Indian Premier League would be perfect to kickstart cricketing action once normalcy returns.

Speaking to IANS, Chahar threw light on the injury, working on his lower back and action during lockdown, the much talked about saliva ban and being one of the lucky few in the current generation to have played under Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and 'Captain Cool' Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

As a pacer who was starting to find his place on the international scene, Chahar says that the news of a stress fracture - back in December -- was slightly scary to begin with as that would mean missing out for the next 3-4 months in order to fully recover.

"When I got to know of the injury, it came out to be a stress fracture and that takes 3-4 months to heal completely. So initially it did feel a little scary because it was such an important phase in my career as I was doing well in T20Is and was just getting into the groove in ODIs. But I have had injuries in the past and I knew how to go about it and come back stronger," he pointed.

So was the lockdown a blessing in disguise? The pacer says that he would never wish for such a scenario because every person has suffered due to the pandemic. As for him, he looked to make the most of the unforeseen break by working on his strength as well as his action which he felt needed fine-tuning.

"When the lockdown started I had become fit and was looking to make a return. But now that when we were told that we needed to stay indoors to fight the pandemic, I thought it was an opportunity to work further on my strength. I trained my heart out. In fact, the 2.5 years before I got injured, I wasn't getting the time to work on myself as I was playing non-stop. If you make a count, I would have hardly come home for 25 days and that too for periods of 2-3 days at max. My strength in the lower body had decreased and since I was playing non-stop, I couldn't work on it. The body needed a period of 30-40 days away from the game.

"Slowly the action was also starting to suffer because when you keep bowling different variations like the knuckle ball and the slower bouncers and all, the action does change a bit. So this break helped me work on my action as well as my lower body strength. As a pacer you want the lower body strength to be on top," he explained.

Now that things are slowly getting back on track, Chahar says he would love to make a return to competitive cricket with the IPL.

"We will need to slowly get back into the system and I believe that IPL could be the perfect vehicle for us to return to cricketing action. It helps that we have a lot of games and that gets you into the rhythm. If you make a player play an ODI or Test immediately after the break, the body might break down due to the load. Like when you hit the gym, you don't do a 100kg bench press to start with.

"Similarly, playing the IPL will help not just the bowlers, but all cricketers as the level of competition you get here is top-class. But we do need a proper camp before the IPL starts so that we can get back into the groove after this phase away from the game," he smiled.

Talking of the IPL, playing for Chennai Super Kings has in fact made him one of the lucky few in the current generation who has played under Dhoni. So how does he see the three top leaders in Dhoni, Kohli and Rohit?

"Virat is very aggressive and when you see him on the field, you automatically get energetic. He leads from the front, be it with his batting or on the field. When you see him giving his 110 per cent, you automatically give your 100 per cent. In Rohit's case, he remains very calm and composed and shows you that he trusts you. So when the captain remains calm and backs you, you also start excelling as you feel that confidence rubbing off on you.

"As for Mahi bhai, we all know how cool he is. His cricketing knowledge is unbelievable. Having captained for so long, he can pre-empt what is going to happen and how one should react to a situation. Also, he knows how to use his players and I feel that is the biggest skill of a captain. If you can bring the best out of your player knowing his area of strength, then nothing beats that. And Mahi bhai can do that and that is why he has achieved what he has. He just knows how to get the best out of you," the 27-year-old said.

When cricket does finally resume, another important challenge for bowlers will be to get the ball to swing considering the saliva ban. But Chahar feels it will not be such an issue in white-ball cricket.

"I feel white-ball cricket won't get too affected by the saliva ban because even though we keep shining it, the ball does stop swinging after a bit. In red-ball cricket, things will be a little difficult and more so when we are playing outside India. I think in white-ball cricket it will not matter that much, but the challenge here will be remaining conscious because it is second-nature to use saliva when you have the ball in hand.

"Yes, in ODIs, sometimes if the conditions are good, we would get swing for an additional few overs. That advantage will go away. But I guess when it comes to red-ball cricket, I feel maybe a solution needs to be worked out," he said.

So will it be a challenge getting back into the groove once training resumes? Chahar feels that it should take 10-odd days of training and some warm-up games to get back into the zone.

"Like I said before, what we need is a proper camp to get back into the zone and once there, it will take around 10-odd days. You haven't played for a while, so the body takes time to get used to that side. It is just about following a process to make a return so that the body doesn't feel shocked and what better than a camp? As professionals we know how to bowl and bat and field, but fine-tuning the mind and getting it ready is the challenge here. You need a camp and some warm-up games," he signed off.

Source: IANS