Had it not been for the pandemic, it would have been the third consecutive Indian Premier League (IPL) season for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) without young fast pitchers Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti. When the franchise invested Rs 6.2 crore in them in January 2018, they were teenagers who had exploded at the U19 World Cup. Since then, the journey has been so fraught with injuries that cricket was, at best, an interruption.
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After a good debut at Eden Gardens, where his first wicket was former KKR captain Gautam Gambhir, Mavi played eight games in 2018 and missed the 2019 IPL. Three seasons with KKR, Nagarkoti has yet to don the purple jersey because he has not played competitively. cricket since February 2018. That could finally change in the United Arab Emirates, where KKR will start on September 23 against defending champions Mumbai Indians.
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“If I get a game, I will tell myself that I am fulfilling a dream. Now I feel like I can handle anything, ”says Nagarkoti. “With three or four days to go, I’m almost 100 percent,” says Mavi.
“Nagarkoti has become very strong. They’re both bowling at over 140 (km / h) and that’s a challenge for any batsman, ”says KKR batsman Nitish Rana.
In separate interviews to the Hindustan Times in Abu Dhabi, where KKR is based, Mavi and Nagarkoti spoke about the importance of staying positive and how the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru was a home away from home. It was at the NCA that the stress fractures and back injuries were repaired. They are occupational risks of being fast; Mavi and Nagarkoti’s collapses possibly compounded by the fact that their bodies weren’t fully ripe for such rigor.
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“NCA is a great place for rehab. They give you a clear schedule so you know when you have a gym session and when you need to go for a run. Also, it is difficult to find good physiotherapists in India, but in the NCA they have so many good physiotherapists that it has a positive effect, ”says Mavi.
It was in the NCA, Nagarkoti met Varun Aaron, the fast pitcher from Jharkhand and Rajasthan Royals who has played nine Trials and nine Internationals in one day. “He (Aaron) said he had a lot of back problems too and he had to reshape his action and get stronger. And Rahul Dravid spoke from time to time. He told me that the more positive you are, the more you think about cricket, the better you will be. Work as hard as you can to make sure you don’t have to go through times like this again, ”says Nagarkoti. Dravid, the NCA chief of cricket, was the U19 coach at the 2018 World Cup that India won.
Dravid had also told Nagarkoti about Pat Cummins’ struggle with injuries before becoming the world’s best trial bowler. Cummins will be a teammate and Nagarkoti has said that managing injuries would be a big part of their conversation.
Nagarkoti is also inspired by Ashish Nehra’s long battle with injuries in an international career that spanned nearly 9 years. “He kept coming back, his last comeback after so many years was a great achievement,” says Nagarkoti referring to Nehra, who was then almost 37 years old, and returned to the India T20 team in 2016 after five years. “He (Nehra) always tells me that if you are a rhythm bowler, you will have to deal with one problem or another. How you handle it, how you get stronger is entirely up to you. It has inspired me to be stronger. ”
Back after long periods without cricket, Mavi’s have not played after their back played in December 2019, KKR’s Kiwi bowling coach Kyle Mills posted them on the nets in the United Arab Emirates last month. Mills, Mavi says, has behaved well “because he has a lot of international experience and clear answers to everything we ask for on the networks.” Mavi says Mills also offers a lot of options and lets the pitcher choose what’s best on the net.
That the grounds would tire out and help spinners dig deeper into the tournament has been a recurring theme prior to IPL13. On Thursday, Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma referred to the Asian Cup in 2018 where “there was a lot of difference between wicket in the first game and the final.” Sharma also spoke about the need to adjust the length and said a reverse swing would occur.
Mavi, 21, accepts that the strips wouldn’t be pacing compatible like Eden, prompting KKR to invest in young Indian fast bowlers (Nagarkoti is 20 and Prasidh Krishna 24) but says it won’t be very different from playing in Delhi where it’s dry. “In practice, we have gotten a bit used to that. After a couple of games, we will be fully used. It won’t be like we’re going to play in England. ”
For the first time since signing as cubs, Shubman Gill, Mavi, and Nagarkoti are available to KKR. He and Mavi talk a lot about workload and whether the “body feels tight,” Nagarkoti says. “For U19 India, we had a good partnership,” says Mavi. They both took nine wickets in six games at the World Cup where Gill finished with 372 runs and Tom Banton, who joined KKR this season, 233.
By the time their bodies were repaired, Gill established himself as a first-rate hitter with four half centuries in 27 games over two seasons. Banton has also turned heads at Big Bash and for England. Mavi and Nagarkoti know they have to catch up.
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