After missing out on the chance to represent India in the upcoming Asian Games in China, pacer Shivam Mavi is set to miss the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 trophy as well, as reports have suggested he suffered a freak rib injury.
Mavi was part of the Indian squad for the Asian Games squad but had to be replaced by Akash Deep, after he injured himself a day before he was set to join the Asia Cup 2023 prep camp in Alur, Karnataka 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 stated 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.
“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,” a source was quoted by News18.
The Uttar Pradesh pacer will now have a long road to recovery and will most likely miss the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy which begins next month. And he could miss the Vijay Hazare one-day Trophy as well.
“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.
Former India strength and conditioning coach Ramji Srinivasan says “freak injuries” can happen if not noticed in the initial stage. Mavi has had various bouts with injuries in his career so far and the seamer suffered back-to-back stress fractures in 2018.
“This injury can be due to excessive lateral flexion or counter rotation,” Srinivasan said. He added that “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.
