Reported By: Sahil Malhotra
Last Updated: September 18, 2023, 15:31 IST
Shivam Mavi has a stress fracture in his 12th rib. (BCCI Photo)
Shivam Mavi will miss the upcoming Asian Games due to a stress fracture in his 12th rib and is likely to miss a lot of domestic cricket.
Shivam Mavi was replaced by Akash Deep in India’s Asian Games squad and the seamer is now staring at a long time away from cricket. The 24-year-old, who has played six T20Is for India, injured himself a day before he was set to join Team India’s preparatory camp for Asia Cup in Alur as a net bowler.
“Mavi is suffering from a back injury and is ruled out of the tournament. The men’s cricket competition will take place from 28th September to 8th October in a T20 format,” a BCCI release state on September 16.
It is reliably learnt that Mavi has a stress fracture in his 12th rib and it happened while he wasn’t even bowling full tilt in the nets. The seamer was injured while bowling from half run-up.
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“Shivam Mavi has a stress fracture in his 12th rib. It didn’t happen during a full blown training session but when he was bowling just from say half the run up. It is an unusual injury for a fast bowler and is likely to keep him out of action for a long time,” says a source close to developments.
The Uttar Pradesh quick will now undertake the long road to recovery. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – the domestic T20 competition – gets underway next month but Mavi is all but certain to miss that and the Vijay Hazare Trophy which follows. There is a big question mark on his participation in the Ranji Trophy too as it wouldn’t be ideal to make a return in the longer format after a long lay-off.
“As things stand, he is more or less certain to miss the two white-ball tournaments – Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy. There is still time for the Ranji Trophy and he could regain fitness till then but the longer format wouldn’t be ideal to stage a comeback after so much time away from cricket,” adds the source.
‘Freak injury’
Mavi has had various bouts with injuries in his career so far and the seamer suffered back-to-back stress fractures in 2018. The latest injury, however, is unusual for fast bowlers. Former India Strength and Conditioning coach Ramji Srinivasan says “freak injuries” can happen if not noticed in the initial stage.
“This injury can be due to excessive lateral flexion or counter rotation,” says Srinivasan.
The former India S&C coach added, “freak injuries can happen if the player does not notice in the initial stage”.
India’s Asian Games-bound squad is preparing under the watchful eyes of the NCA coaching staff and will begin their campaign directly from the quarter-final stage. India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan are the four top-seeded teams.
Team India (Senior Men) squad for 19th Asian Games: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Akash Deep.
Standby list of players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan.
