Virender Sehwag gave his take on the cricketers suffering from recurring injuries. According to the former India opener, the present-day players are facing injuries regularly because of heavy weightlifting in the gym. He also slammed the team's performance coach Basu Shanker for making the same programs for all players of the squad.
“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,” Sehwag said on TRS Clips.
“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,” he added.
Sehwag recalled the fitness routine during his time.
“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 quadricep injuries, Sehwag said.
“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,” he said.
Sehwag also expressed that he doesn't feel that there is a need for weightlifting in cricket.
“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,” the former star cricketer said.
