India’s pace spearhead Ishant Sharma has said making a comeback from illness was not easy for him. The right-arm pacer, however, did not let the illness affect his game as he made an impressive return to the playing eleven in the ongoing Test against England in Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium.
The lanky pacer, who got married to basketball player Pratima Singh on December 9, last donned the Indian Test jersey during the four-match Test series in the West Indies, where took eight wickets to finish as India’s third highest wicket-taker behind Mohammed Shami (11) and Ravichandran Ashwin (17).
However, he missed the New Zealand series after failing to recover from Chikungunya. But he showed no sign of rustiness when he took charge of the attack in the fifth Test and although he bagged only a couple of wickets, he was very impressive with the red cherry.
Speaking to bcci.tv, the 28-year old said:“Those were tough times.When I was out for the New Zealand series, I couldn’t even watch the matches on television because I was in the hospital for two weeks.”
“When I was discharged from the hospital, I went to the ground and began my training. I slowly began regaining strength because you lose a lot of muscle when you are suffering from chikungunya. It was very difficult to recover because I had very little time to get back to full fitness, especially with the amount of Test matches we were playing going forward,” he added.
Speaking about his rehabilitation process, he said:“I started weight training slowly and began bowling to get a feel of my body. I had to get match fit and train harder so that I could play the matches. I put in the hard yards and straightaway went into two Ranji Trophy matches to test my fitness. I then got into the (Test) side and was looking to get back to the kind of bowling fitness standards that I had in West Indies. It was tough but I am glad that I am back.”
“When Virat told me that I will be playing this game, I was mentally prepared to go into this Test match. Once you are mentally fit and your mind is trained to be prepared for a Test match, you don’t need anything else. You just go with the flow and put in your hundred percent when you are on the field,” he added.
The Delhi bowler also looked content with his bowling performance on his comeback.
“I believe I could have made the batsmen play more deliveries. The wicket was flat and it was important to be patient. I am bowling in full flow after two-and-a-half weeks and considering that I am happy with my performance,” he concluded.