'Dhoni, Sachin, Yuvraj never got ruled out due to back injuries...': Sehwag's blistering 'everyone is not Kohli' remark
Virender Sehwag has issued an explosive statement at a time when Team India is hampered by injuries. Virat Kohli-starrer India will miss the services of Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer in the Australia ODIs.
What do pace ace Jasprit Bumrah and premier batter Shreyas Iyer apparently have in common? Both star performers of the Indian team are set to miss a major portion of the 2023 season due to their respective recurring back injuries. While Iyer is ruled out of the upcoming Australia series due to the recurrence of his back injury, speed merchant Bumrah has recently undergone surgery and the star pacer is expected to remain out of action for 6 months.
Giving his honest take about Indian players suffering from recurring injuries, legendary cricketer Virender Sehwag opined that there is no place for weightlifting in the game of cricket. According to the legendary opener and former Team India captain, Indian players are becoming injury-prone because of their workout routines. At a time when Rohit Sharma's Team India is hampered by back and hamstring injuries, Sehwag made a tall claim and stated that cricket icons Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh hardly suffered such setbacks in their glorious careers.
"There is no place for weightlifting in cricket. Instead, you should do the exercises that improve your game. Weightlifting will give you strength, but will also increase stiffness and soreness. In our days, Aakash Chopra, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, MS Dhoni, or Yuvraj Singh, nobody were ruled out due to back, hamstring, or quadricep injuries," Sehwag said on TRS Clips.
Sehwag also claimed that former India performance coach Basu Shanker used to make the same programs for all Indian players. Recalling his previous interaction with Ravichandran Ashwin when the latter was at Punjab Kings (PBKS), Sehwag revealed that the star all-rounder became accustomed to clean and jerk only because it used to be a trend.
"Basu Shanker was with the Indian team for a lot of years, and he made the same programs for all players. Why should there be the same program for Ravichandran Ashwin and Virat Kohli? When Ashwin was with the Kings XI Punjab, he told me he was doing clean-and-jerk workouts because it was in trend. Athletes train from childhood for clean and jerk and still get injured. Imagine a cricketer starting when he's over 30 years old. Both Ashwin and Axar had problems with their knees because of this workout," Sehwag said.
Known for his explosive batting style across all formats of the game, ex-India opener Sehwag admitted that players didn't endorse any weight training during his playing days. The former Indian skipper also issued an interesting statement about Virat Kohli, who often gets the credit for revolutionising the fitness standards of the Indian team."We didn't do any weight training in our days, but we were still able to play cricket all day. This could be Virat Kohli's funda. But not everyone is Virat Kohli. You need to prepare a training program based on your own body," the former Indian opener concluded.
