Akash Deep counts his blessings

Akash Deep’s early years were engulfed by one ordeal after another. Sometime in 2010, he was in his teens when he had to leave his modest home in Bihar and move to neighbouring West Bengal on the pretext of finding a job. In 2015, he lost his father and elder brother in the space of a few months. Even in mid-2025, as he was bowling India to victory against England in the second Test at Edgbaston with a match haul of 10 for 187, his elder sister was battling cancer.

So when he found out in March this year that he would be sidelined for nearly seven months with a stress fracture in his lower back, he didn’t panic. Myriad curveballs had been thrown at the 29-year-old, and this was merely another that he had to deal with.

“I take everything positively. If I am injured today, I have the Centre of Excellence, a trainer, a physio and a coach. Even when I am practising, there are four or five members from the support staff. There are so many things set up for you to succeed. These are blessings,” Akash, donning a training jersey and shorts, said in a chat with The Hindu. “If I was still back in my village, there wouldn’t have been anyone to even tell me I am injured. I didn’t see this phase as needing mental toughness. There was nothing to be depressed about. I had such a well-drilled system looking after me. You have to just wake up and work hard. There is nothing else to think about. It is a blessing to have such things. So I was motivated and positive throughout.”

Akash was offering his perspective at a five-star hotel in Srinagar on Tuesday, two days out from the Irani Cup fixture between Rest of India and Jammu & Kashmir at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium. It will be his return to competitive action — his last outing was for Bengal against J&K in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy semifinal in February.

Vis-a-vis the hardships that life can entail beyond the sporting arena, a stress fracture may not be a tragedy. But it is no trivial matter either, for back injuries have derailed the careers of many promising fast bowlers.

The injury came about at the back end of a hectic season that saw Akash push the envelope in the quest to deliver Ranji glory for Bengal.

“When you are playing so much cricket through the year, I thought it was normal to feel stiffness. In the first innings of the semifinal, it was fine. In the second innings, I started feeling pain in my left glute and hamstring,” recalled Akash. “I didn’t feel anything in my back. We had a small total to defend. I took two wickets in six overs in the final session of day three. I was feeling stiffness overnight. But I thought I will get a break after the game for 7-8 days. I wanted to put in maximum effort. I bowled a spell of 10 overs with that on the morning of day four. While bowling, I didn’t feel much. But when my body cooled, I started feeling it. There was a camp in the CoE after that. They took a scan and it showed a stress fracture in the lower back.”

Till then, Akash hadn’t known what it would be like to miss so many months of cricket. But in keeping with his propensity to see the upside of every situation, he felt this was his body getting its wish for a breather.

“By God’s grace, the good thing in my case has been that I have recovered very quickly from injuries. I knew that even if it is a stress fracture, I would recover well if I followed all the processes correctly. Yes, I would have to miss some cricket. But I also felt that my body was demanding rest. I had been playing regularly for 8-9 years. I had never taken a very long break. Even when I had injuries, I had to miss cricket for a month at the most. I didn’t take it in a negative way,” he said.

Recovery and rehab

While the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) has faced severe flak recently for the recurring injuries that many of India’s top players have encountered, Akash was generous in his praise of the state-of-the-art facility. So much so that he willingly returned to Bengaluru soon after his marriage in June.

“The people at CoE have a lot of experience. They have seen a lot of cases. Around 10 days after the injury was diagnosed, they put the entire plan and timeline in place. It has all gone accordingly. Neither I nor they missed a beat. In the initial stages, which was about rest and strengthening the core, I was going back home occasionally. But after my marriage, I was at CoE all through. If there is time on your hands, there is no better facility than CoE for practice, gym and recovery,” he asserted.

The months at CoE, according to Akash, were put to very good use.

“I analysed a lot about how I can spend this time productively. I started focusing on every aspect. I spoke to a dietitian about how I can improve my diet further. Things like muscle training, how much to sleep… I realised that I have to use this time well to prolong my career. I hope I don’t have to spend so much time on the sidelines again. I went into every little detail as an athlete,” informed the seamer from the town of Sasaram.

Understanding his body

Keeping Akash company at different junctures were the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Mayank Yadav. All of them have had a history of acute back injuries.

“I asked them about the things I wanted to know, but the main thing is how does your body respond. That is the main lesson I’ve learnt from these months. I learnt about how my body reacts to different things like diet, training and sleep. It is very important to read your body as an athlete. That was a big takeaway,” opined Akash.

Another learning is knowing when to operate at full tilt and when to apply the brakes.

It is admittedly a hard balancing act whilst being in the heat of the battle. Having entered the domestic season on the back of a breakthrough performance at Edgbaston, Akash seems to think he exerted himself a tad too much.

“After that England series, which was a lot of fun to play, I exerted a lot of effort in domestic cricket. I should have understood my body more,” he felt.

“But when you are in the thick of the action, you tend to forget a lot of things. You just give it your all. You can never know about injuries. You have to play through phases. You don’t know what that can lead to. To be honest, if it is a do-or-die match, it is very hard to hold back. But I can try to be smarter about situations where it is needed and where it is not needed.”

An eye on Kiwiland

If Akash’s comeback goes smoothly in Srinagar, his focus will gradually turn towards making the cut for the Test tour of New Zealand.

Scheduled in November, in the early stages of the Black Caps’ home season, Akash’s knack for extracting seam movement should make him an enticing pick in the southern hemisphere. “My strength is bowling long spells and at a consistent spot. My focus will be on that,” he explained.

“You may have practised for 7-8 months, but a match is different. I have to get used to the rigour of playing matches. You may sustain yourself physically, but it is also about sustaining mentally for six hours for five days. That can only come from game time. So I have to get used to these things. Whenever I get a chance, I will keep myself ready to deliver.”

If there are any concerns about how soon Akash can find his rhythm, the seamless start he made to his Test career against England in Ranchi, with three wickets in his opening spell, is instructive. He may be still new to the Test fold, but knows his craft thoroughly by virtue of his extensive grind in the domestic circuit.

“I had played 40-45 First Class matches by the time I played Test cricket,” he said. “So, I had that advantage. I had that confidence. When you are performing consistently in domestic cricket, you know how to perform regardless of the situation and batter. “I knew my strengths. I knew I just had to keep doing the same things that I had been doing for around four years.”