It’s tough to be in Deepak Chahar’s shoes at the moment as the star Chennai Super Kings bowler is missing out on one big-ticket event after another with a string of injuries. The injuries are bothering but not surprising given fast bowlers often endure such periods in their career as senior pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as well will vouch for.
A week earlier, Chahar was in fact seen as the prime contender to replace an injured Bumrah in the T20 World Cup squad as the 30-year-old pacer was one of the standbys and was reportedly given preference over Mohammad Shami. A back injury, sustained ahead of India vs South Africa ODIs, forced his ouster from the ODI squad and soon sounded a death knell on his World Cup ambitions.
Since February 2022, Chahar had to endure one injury after another and we look at the injuries and their consequences in our timeline.
20 February: Quadricep tear during Windies’ tour of India
Chahar’s first injury of the season was a quadricep tear on his right leg during the third T20 of the India vs West Indies series. The incident happened during the last ball of his second over after he took two crucial wickets in the game.
Team physio rushed to the group and the player was treated on the field before he limped off the group while pulling out of the rest of the game. Interestingly, in the first T20I of the series Chahar had an injury scare when he was hit on his right hand, while bowling, with a powerful shot by a Windies batter. The injury also forced him to miss the subsequent T20 series against Sri Lanka at home.
The injury came right after Chahar was bought for a whopping Rs 14 crore at the mega IPL auction. CSK remained hopeful that Chahar will recover in time for the IPL in April
12 April 2022: Back injury during rehab at NCA; out of IPL
That was not to be as the pacer suffered a back injury, days ahead of the IPL. Ironically, a stress fracture happened while training at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru as he was recovering from the injury from the Windies series.
CSK maintained that Deepak will join the team by the second week of April but medical reports revealed the seriousness of the injury and forced him out of the IPL while it was feared he won’t play for another four months.
On 21 June 2022, the BCCI confirmed that Chahar will take a month or longer to recover completely.
5 August 2022: Deepak Chahar says he has resumed training after recovery
The seamer revealed early in August that he has returned to training after recovering from his injury. The period didn’t just keep him out of international cricket but domestic matches as well.
“I have recovered well. I am playing practice matches now. I am practicing in Chennai currently. My injury has been completely recovered,” Chahar told News24.
He also revealed during the interview that he underwent surgery on his teeth too during the period and had to be on multiple painkillers.
“It was a very difficult time. I had to decide if I wanted to get the surgery done once I was injured. I didn’t go for surgery as I wanted to play IPL. Subsequently, I had pain in my teeth and had to remove the wisdom tooth. I was taking three-four painkillers daily,” Chahar added.
18 August 2022: Return to international cricket
Chahar subsequently featured for a second-string India team touring Zimbabwe, where he picked five wickets in two ODIs with Harare wicket favouring his strengths on his international return.
8 September 2022: Deepak Chahar replaces Avesh Khan in Asia Cup squad
Deepak Chahar travelled with India’s main squad to the UAE for Asia Cup 2022 as a standby and his services were called for as he had to replace an ill Avesh Khan in the squad for the Afghanistan tie. Chahar bowled his entire quota of four overs in the match, picking no wickets for 28 runs.
7 October 2022: Deepak Chahar twists ankle while training ahead of South Africa ODIs
Deepak Chahar suffered a fresh injury on the eve of the first ODI between India and South Africa as the pacer twisted his ankle while training in Lucknow. Chahar didn’t feature in the game and it was revealed soon that he will miss the entire series.
The injury came at a time when he was seen as the front-runner to replace injured Jasprit Bumrah in the T20 World Cup squad as Chahar was one of the standbys.
12 October 2022: Drops out of World Cup race
In another five days’ time, it was also confirmed that Chahar won’t be taking a flight to Australia as his ankle injury forced him to be unavailable for selection. BCCI turned to Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Shardul Thakur for selection and is yet to announce who will replace the pacer in the team.
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