For Deepak Chahar, rehab is an opportunity to get stronger – with ball and bat

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For Deepak Chahar, rehab is an opportunity to get stronger – with ball and bat

Deepak Chahar hasn’t performed aggressive cricket since December 2023, however he’s making ready to shake off the rust and return to motion within the IPL as an improved bowler and batter. He’s utilizing the downtime earlier than the match so as to add an additional yard of tempo to his bowling and extra pictures to his batting.

“Once you’re doing rehab – or simply taking part in – you are not gaining energy. You are shedding energy of your physique,” Chahar stated on the sidelines of an occasion in Chennai the place Etihad Airways was introduced as the brand new official sponsors for Chennai Tremendous Kings. “So that is the fitting time for me or any athlete… once you get one-and-a-half months or two months, you’ll want to acquire energy. If you happen to acquire energy you enhance your tempo as properly.

“So, yeah, once I performed in 2018, I used to be practically bowling round 140ks. Once you’re taking part in often you do not get the prospect to do energy coaching and your tempo comes down. That is the fitting time for me to extend my tempo. Talent-wise, I’ve clearly been doing properly with batting and bowling. So I am attempting to develop just a few pictures with the bat too, as a result of once you bat at No. 8 or No. 9, you solely get to play three-four balls. So you need to utilise these balls with totally different pictures.”

The presence of Chahar and Shardul Thakur may probably give CSK batting depth all the best way all the way down to No.9, with the Sri Lanka pair of Maheesh Theekshana, who has additionally improved his batting, and Matheesha Pathirana to observe. Stephen Fleming had initially scouted Chahar as a batting allrounder at Rising Pune Supergiant/s, and MS Dhoni had even used him as a pinch-hitting No. 3 in 2018 – bear in mind chaos principle? The introduction of the Influence Participant rule has considerably diminished CSK’s want for Chahar, the batter, however his lower-order abilities give the highest order the license to take extra dangers.

“That was the one sport the place Mahi bhai [Dhoni] gave me batting earlier than him and I scored some runs in that sport,” Chahar stated with amusing. “And we received that sport. It has been good for the group as a result of we’ve not wanted my batting. Mahi bhai himself bats at No. 8 and I bat at No. 9 and you realize that offers quite a lot of stability to the group and see the batters earlier than us having this [depth].

“I can provide you an instance of 1 sport. It was the primary sport in Dubai after Covid. The primary sport was towards Mumbai [Indians]. We have been 40 for 4 [24 for 4], I believe, and from there we ended up scoring 160 runs. Rutu [Ruturaj Gaikwad] and [Ravindra] Jadeja have been taking part in, and so they began hitting from the 14th over. Different groups will not try this as a result of they do not have that depth of their batting. They must go until the 18th or nineteenth over after which they begin hitting. You might be late and you do not find yourself scoring these many runs.”

‘Dhoni, Fleming can have an issue with the mixture’

The addition of New Zealand gamers Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra, who’re each notably sturdy towards spin, and Thakur lends much more flexibility to the CSK line-up and will end in an issue of lots for the group administration, in Chahar’s opinion.

“We had an excellent public sale and I additionally stated lately that we’ve such a very good stability that Mahi bhai and Fleming can have issues to make the combos,” he stated. “We can have loads of combos to play with, so that they’re those who’re going to determine. It is difficult for them to select the mixture for the twenty second [March].”

Chahar had missed the South Africa tour and the house T20Is towards Afghanistan as a result of his father was unwell. Since India do not play any extra T20Is till the beginning of the T20 World Cup in June, the IPL is last-chance saloon for him.

“He is helped the bowlers lots, particularly those that bowl extra on the demise, as a result of he is aware of the mindset of batsmen – what he’s considering”

Deepak Chahar on Dwayne Bravo, the CSK bowling coach

“I would say household comes first. If there is a household emergency, you do not take into consideration anything,” Chahar stated. “Once you face a state of affairs like this, you do not take into consideration what is going on to occur subsequent. After I got here out of that state of affairs, I may take into consideration what subsequent I can do. When anybody sees me play the following time, they need to be considering: ‘he is an improved cricketer’.”

At CSK, Chahar may lean on the expertise of bowling coach Dwayne Bravo, who was usually hands-on with the quick bowlers through the demise overs in IPL 2023. Bravo stationed himself proper behind his quick bowlers on the boundary to trace their progress with the previous ball.

“He has a lot expertise. He has greater than 600 [623] wickets in T20 cricket,” Chahar stated. “He does not train me lots [with the new ball], however with regards to the previous ball, he begins giving his teaching. He is helped the bowlers lots, particularly those that bowl extra on the demise, as a result of he is aware of the mindset of batsmen – what he’s considering.

“At the moment, you’ll want to perceive the sport, have a mindset of our personal, and perceive the mindset of the batsman too. He is been attempting to do this with the children.”

Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo