‘Everyone is not Virat Kohli’: Virender Sehwag slams gym-culture behind frequent injuries to cricketers
Former India batsman Virender Sehwag has taken a strong stand on the current training practices in the Indian cricket team where cricketers spend way more time than required in the gym. Sehwag feels that some of the workouts that are a part of the cricketer’s gym sessions are the real reason behind his frequent injuries. India’s fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been out of action for the past 8 months due to a back injury. Shreyas Iyer has also been in and out of the team due to his back problem. In the past too, cricketers have complained of knee injuries. Sehwag believes this is largely due to the Indian team’s trainers applying a one-fit-for-all rule to the cricketers, not knowing who is comfortable with which exercise.
“In our days, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni or Yuvraj Singh, nobody was ruled out due to back, hamstring or quadriceps injury,” Sehwag said on TRS clips ”
Sehwag said that in his days, no cricketer used to do weight tanning and still was able to perform well and maintain match-fitness in all conditions.
“…It may be Virat Kohli’s funda. But not everyone is Virat Kohli. You need to design a training program based on your body,” he said.
Citing the example of R Ashwin, Sehwag said that he was made to do the clean and jerk workout because it was in vogue. Sehwad said that athletes who start doing clean and jerk from childhood also get injured. Someone who starts doing it after the age of 30 is definitely going to suffer even more. He said that it was because of this workout that both Ashwin and Akshar Patel had knee problems.
Sehwag concluded his talk by saying about this point that weight lifting and other such exercises are not for cricketers as they can increase one’s strength but they also increase stiffness and pain in the body.