Former South African cricketer Allan Donald said that Hardik Pandya puts his body under considerable strain with each delivery, and it eventually leads him to get injured.
Donald admitted the significance of modern players' strength and conditioning, saying Hardik has invested time in building up his body after periods away from the game.
The Proteas great further stressed the importance of screening young players to ensure their biomechanics are sound and prevent serious injuries. He also highlighted the significance of analyzing videos during the screening process.
Allan Donald told Sportstar: “It's a big thing... because when we do screening from a young age, we do lots of video analysis on young kids when they come through the system, to make sure that biomechanically, they are fine, and they're not going to get hurt or injured seriously. So, doing the correct screening from a young age is incredibly important.”
He continued, “Look, I think Hardik puts his body through a lot every single delivery. I mean, it's not a nice thing and also one needs to look at how strong these guys are these days. Hardik has spent a lot of time away from the game, building his body back up. And strength and conditioning is a major, major factor these days.”
Meanwhile, Donald compared Jasprit Bumrah's run-up to a golf swing, saying that it may not be the smoothest, but the science behind it is a casework.
He further explained, “It's very, I mean, it's absolutely unique. You could see that he's obviously done this when he was a kid, playing backyard cricket or whatever it is. Or school cricket. He worked his run-up out for himself.
It's a bit of a stutter. But when it actually comes to that la10-metres metres of sprint, he is hard. And all of a sudden, he has hit rhythm for the first time. And then, of course, the late release is quite incredible. And the control that he has over the outswing and the inswing is quite a thing to watch.”
Donald signed off by saying, “But in a way, it's like a golf swing. You can have the worst swing in the world, but the last foot all the way down towards the ball and you are smashing it 350 every single time. No one’s going to care. And that's exactly what good Bumrah does. It gets done.”
(With Sportstar Inputs)
