Torn muscle is my worry now

It has been a frustrating week for me and on Saturday night I’ll be watching The Kings XI Punjab take on the Chennai Super Kings from the dugout due to a torn muscle in my side. I’m very disappointed as I have been really enjoying this IPL and I was getting into my best form.

Last night’s game would also have been a chance to get some revenge on Murali. He grabbed my wicket in our first encounter at Mohali and when we met up for dinner on Friday night he was not shy of me reminding me about. I might now have to wait a year to keep him quiet.

The injury happened last weekend while I played a cover drive. A muscle of my 11th rib tore and it felt like I’d been stabbed. Scans revealed a 2cm tear and our physio, Paddy, a great guy from Australia, gave me a 12-16 day recovery period.
I have been having treatment every day with Paddy, icing the injury and also taking anti-inflammatory drugs. We seem to be making good progress and I started gym work on Saturday. Fingers crossed, I am targeting the 21 May game against the Mumbai Indians for my return.

Back to the cricket, we passed the mid-way point in the IPL this week and it appears that the bowlers have bounced back after the first week belonged emphatically to the batsmen. People are asking whether this is because some of the high-scoring Australians have left or whether the bowlers have got better.

If you look at the team totals scored over the entire tournament to date then you will see that all seven of the scores over 200 came in the first week. Since then we have seen a multitude of scores in the 150 to 175 region and many of these have been real cliffhangers.

For me, the main reason for this is that fielding teams and the bowlers have adapted quickly. They’ve put their thinking caps on after the early fireworks and have worked out better ways of restricting batsmen. We’ve seen more discipline, greater control and better variations.

The batsmen are also evolving their strategies one thing that stands out for me are that the successful batsmen have scored their runs in an orthodox manner. Contrary to the predictions of some that this is a slap-bang-wallop free-for-all, a sound technique has been crucial to consistent run scoring.

We are also starting to see a tendency for teams to chase now. The thinking is that it is easier to pace your run chase, which is crucial in this shortened version, when you have a target in mind. I also feel that sides batting first have been a little confused about what is a good total . Dew is a factor here too, in the humid cities like Chennai, because the bowlers find it harder to grip the ball.
These are all lessons and insights that we are having to digest as the tournament really heats up. The points table has been transformed from a few days ago. Thankfully, the Kings XI Punjab has been heading upwards with five straight wins. We’d love a sixth against Super Kings.

Our secret has been proper batting at the top of the order. Shaun Marsh, a compact and orthodox opener, has been anchoring the innings well and the rest of the line-up includes a variety of playing styles. The bowlers have also been performing really well. We are fortunate to have a balanced attack.

The one major area for improvement is the fielding. We have been below-par in this department. We need to be faster to ball, stop more singles, take more run out opportunities and catch more consistently. We have been working really hard on this.

We’ve spent the week down south in Bangalore and Chennai and are looking forward to returning to our base in Chandigarh this coming week. The highlight of which is going to be a team visit to the Taj Mahal, our first proper sight-seeing of the tournament.