Asia Cup 2023 will mark the return of India's pillars in the middle order Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, who will be returning to competitive cricket after six and three months respectively. Iyer, who had first experienced the back pain after returning from the Bangladesh series in December last year, was ruled out for a month before returning in the second Test against Australia in Delhi in February. Iyer played a couple of games before the injury further aggravated and he was ruled out for another few months.
Now having undergone surgery and months of rehab since then, Iyer has finally been passed completely fit and will now be raring to go in the first game against Pakistan on September 2. Iyer played a couple of matches at the NCA and underwent match simulation to check his strength and level of fitness and now before the tournament, he has opened up on his journey to getting completely fit.
Iyer revealed that he suffered a slipped disk, a kind of nerve compression that was causing him pain right down to his toe. Speaking on the same, Iyer said that he was managing his injury somehow and played through pain only to an extent when it was bearable.
"I had this issue for a while, but I was I was taking injections, and I was going through various routes to see to it that I'm steady and playing many more matches, but it reached a saturation point where I realised that okay, now I have to get a surgery," Iyer said speaking on the BCCI website.
Iyer then said that he was hospitalised for a couple of days, which was followed by a 10-day rest and even though the doctors told him that it can be managed, the surgery was the right option. Iyer mentioned that it took three months for the pain to subside and for him to begin training in controlled manner but he is happy that all of that is past him now.
Speaking about the toughest phase of injury, surgery and rehab, Iyer said, "So, the testing phase was the toughest period to go through, and the physios and the trainers were pretty confident about me coming back strong, but in my mind, I could feel the pain. So I was pretty oblivious at that point of time to whether I would pass the test or not. But over a period of time, I realized that the pain is subsiding. And my strength is improving in my leg.
Iyer said that he surprised himself with quick recovery and passing the yo-yo tests. "So gradually, as we started doing some running sessions, first training session was extremely tough. And yeah, I was a bit perplexed at that point of time, what would happen? second session, I was progressing. I did some trial yo-yo tests. And gradually after some time, I played a match and then I was gaining that momentum and then yeah, in yo-yo test, I surprised myself as well," he added.
It will be a key couple of matches for Iyer, who will be important for India's chances in the next two months starting with Asia Cup, the Australia series and then the World Cup.
