Follow UsHaving spent over four months out of the game, KL Rahul is all set to make his comeback to professional cricket in the Super Four stages of Asia Cup 2023, starting with the clash against Pakistan on Sunday (September 10th). Rahul snapped his tendon in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on May 1, and has since spent his time entirely off the field, rehabbing in order to ensure that he gets fit in time for the 50-over World Cup.
Fit again now, after a lengthy recovery period, the 31-year-old revealed that he never feared about regaining the ‘skill’ aspect but was, however, concerned about his ability to get back to ‘wicket-keeping fitness’.
“I knew that I only needed a few weeks to get back in touch. I only gave myself two to three weeks to getting back the ‘skill’ part,” Rahul told bcci.tv.
“I knew that the biggest challenge for me personally, coming back, would be wicket-keeping because of the quadricep injury. When you’re keeping, you need to put a lot of stress on your quads every ball.
“You’re also fighting a mental battle, wherein you’re always thinking in the back of your mind that ‘I might feel pain’. The biggest challenge was to get rid of that fear and get rid of that pain aspect of things. That can only happen when you take things step by step.”
Rahul revealed that, initially, he was hoping that the injury would be a minor one but knew once the scans came out that he had no option but to go under the knife.
“I tried to chase a ball and my tendon snapped. I had a full-fledged tear and my tendon ripped apart from my quadriceps. Initially me, my family, my franchise and everybody was hoping for the tear to not be a big one, but once we did the scans we knew it was a full tear. It was quite clear that the only way to completely overcome the injury was to go under the knife and do surgery.”
Someone who has had his fair share of injuries, Rahul said that the most important part of the recovery process is to respect the body, and give it time to heal.
“When you have a surgery, the most important thing is to respect the fact that you put your body through something very big. You had a very big repair, so you have to respect it and give your body enough time to recover.”
The 31-year-old, at one point, was well ahead of schedule with respect to his comeback, but sustained an untimely niggle that put him back by a few weeks and, in turn, ruled him out of the group stages of Asia Cup 2023. He said that though the niggle proved to be frustrating, he was helped by the fact that he was ‘mentally ready’.
“Unfortunately, in the process of coming back, I developed another small niggle just before I could come back into the team. That was a big downer, because I was initially ahead of schedule. So I went through ups and downs within the recovery process as well. What helped me was that I was ready mentally,” the 31-year-old said.
Having played no professional cricket since May, returning directly in a big stage like Asia Cup won’t be easy, but Rahul asserted that he is up for the challenge.
“I’m happy to come back into the team and get back the rhythm of being in the middle, playing 100 overs, keeping for 50 overs and batting for as long as the team needs me to. We are playing the best tournament outside of a World Cup that we could possibly play. We are playing some quality teams in the next ten days, so I’m excited about that.”