New Delhi: India’s Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill lavished praise on the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Centre of Excellence and detailed how it helped him recover well and on time for the upcoming T20I series against South Africa.
Gill sustained a neck injury during the first Test against the Proteas in Kolkata last month and was eventually sidelined from the second Test and the three-game ODI series. He made his way to the BCCI CoE and started his rehab and will now be seen back in India colours when the Men in Blue take on the South Africans in a five-match T20I series beginning on Tuesday.
The BCCI shared a video of Gill on social media in which he spoke in detail about his recovery time. He said, “I’m feeling much better. I think the day that I came here, from that day till today, I’ve had quite a few skill sessions and some training sessions. So, I feel much, much better now. From recovery to training, I think for an athlete, it can’t get any better. It’s a paradise for any athlete. You come here, you want to get physically better, you want to get mentally better.”
Speaking of the facilities at the CoE and how the NCA shaped his formative years, Gill added, “You can’t ask for better facilities. You know, you can go to the oxygen chamber. There’s cryo there and some of the things that I’ve used for the recovery have been pretty amazing for me. What stood out for me was there are so many machines that I don’t know how to use. That itself tells you, you know, how big the setup is.
“Growing up playing under-14, under-16, you know, it used to be a thing among us where we used to be like someone has been to the NCA and come back. Watching that player, we used to be off that thing, you know, he’s gone to the NCA. You play the under-16 state, if you play the finals, you play seven to eight matches out of, I think, 200 players together that play in the under-16 state. Only 25-30 used to attend the NCA’s and the 16 NCA’s and it used to be a very big thing.
“We all used to look forward to coming here, you know, spending time with the coaches, training here. When you’re coming here, you know, you’re kind of the cream of the crop. So, you know, you have the skillset to be able to reach to the next level and making use of the facility where you know that how I can go to the next level physically or how I can go to the next level mentally.”
Gill also appreciated the efforts taken by the trainers and coaches who work with the players at the NCA, saying, “You have got all the coaches here to work with us. You’ve got all the trainers and all the physios. But how willing are you to be able to work on yourself from that aspect is going to take you up that notch from the rest of the players and that’s how I think everyone can, whosoever comes, I can make use of.”
As Gill returns to the Indian setup, the Men in Blue gear up to take on the Proteas in the first T20I that is set to be played at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Tuesday.
(IANS)
