“Not everyone is Virat Kohli”; Former Indian Cricketer slams gym routine for current injury row

Indian pacestar Jasprit Bumrah and premier batter Shreyas Iyer both are set to miss most of the 2023 season due to their respective recurrence of back injuries. While Iyer is ruled out of the upcoming series against Australia, Bumrah has recently undergone surgery in New Zealand and will probably remain out of action for 6 months. 

While giving his honest opinion on the Indian players sustaining recurring injuries, ex-Indian legendary cricketer Virender Sehwag said, that there is no site for weightlifting in the bat and ball game. According to him, Indian players are becoming injury prone due to their exercise routines. At this time, the Indian team led by Rohit Sharma has become more prone to back and hamstring injuries. The former opener and former Team India captain expressed that popular Indian cricketing icons Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni and many other ex-cricketers had hardly suffered any injuries in their magnificent careers. 

"There is no place for weightlifting in cricket. Instead, you should do the exercises that improve your game. Weightlifting will give you strength, but will also increase stiffness and soreness. In our days, Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni, or Yuvraj Singh, nobody was ruled out due to back, hamstring, or quadricep injuries," Sehwag said.

Sehwag also asserted that the former India performance coach Basu Shanker used to make same schedules for all the Indian cricketers. Remembering his prior interaction with Ravichandran Ashwin when the spinner was playing for the Punjab franchise. Sehwag also disclosed that the star all-rounder became habituated to clean and jerk only because it was a trend at that time.

"Basu Shanker was with the Indian team for a lot of years, and he made the same programs for all players. Why should there be the same program for Ravichandran Ashwin and Virat Kohli? When Ashwin was with the Punjab franchise, he told me he was doing clean-and-jerk workouts because it was in trend. Athletes train from childhood for clean and jerk and still get injured. Imagine a cricketer starting when he's over 30 years old. Both Ashwin and Axar had problems with their knees because of this workout," Sehwag stated.

The then-Indian superstar known for his explosive style of batting across all formats of the game stated that the players didn’t endorse any weight training during his days of being in the field. Sehwag also stated an interesting statement about the current Indian superstar Virat Kohli, who often is praised for his fitness standards in the entire Indian Cricket Team. "We didn't do any weight training in our days, but we were still able to play cricket all day. This could be Virat Kohli's funda. But not everyone is Virat Kohli. You need to prepare a training program based on your own body," the former Indian opener said.