Lucknow, Mar 23 (PTI) Indian tearaway pacer Mayank Yadav said he paid little attention to his body earlier, but a string of career-threatening injuries and surgery forced a change, with interactions with Jasprit Bumrah during rehabilitation aiding his recovery.
The 23-year-old Mayank has endured a series of injuries, starting with a major setback during IPL 2024, followed by a serious back issue that ruled him out of the remainder of IPL 2025. He is now set to return for Lucknow Super Giants after completing rehabilitation at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru.
“Everything has changed for me post-surgery. Earlier, I never used to take care of myself. Whenever I had to do a recovery session, I used to avoid it and neglect many aspects. But after the surgery, I paid a lot of attention to recovery, nutrition and sleep. The more I respect my body, the more my body respects me on the field,” Mayank told JioStar’s ‘IPL Today Live’.
During his rehabilitation, Mayank, who had clocked the fastest delivery by an Indian in IPL 2024 for Lucknow Super Giants, said interactions with Bumrah — who also underwent a similar surgery — helped him understand recovery better.
“When I was in rehab at the NCA, Bumrah bhaiya was also there. I have a very good bonding with him. He is like a teacher to me. He also had the same surgery, the same scenario,” he said.
“Bumrah bhaiya shared his experience of how to come back after surgery and what things to pay attention to. He told me how the body will be during recovery, how it will react. Sometimes it will feel good, sometimes not. Whenever we talk on call or messages, he shares his experience as much as possible,” added Mayank.
On discovering his ability to bowl at high speed, Mayank said he realised it only when IPL trainers measured his pace with a speed gun.
“When I came to the IPL for the first time, our trainers used to measure our bowling speed with a speed gun. At that time, I came to know that I have this talent, I have this gift. So now I have to respect it,” said Mayank.
“With fast bowling, things are always a little dicey whether you can do it or not. There is a lot of stress on the body, physically and mentally.” Mayank said he had always wanted to bowl express pace since childhood and was never inclined towards spin.
“When I used to play in the streets, I didn’t know how to bowl spin so I used to bowl only fast bowling. My craze for fast bowling began since childhood. My father also used to show me a lot of fast bowling videos.
“Mostly, when India used to play in South Africa, I used to watch a lot of those matches. I really liked two of their pacers, our current bowling coach Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn. Through them, I got the craze to bowl fast.” PTI AM AM DDV AM
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