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Bowling at the practice wicket at the Roshanara cricket ground,former India U-19 and Mumbai Indians pacer Abu Nechim is slowly working up a decent pace. However as a batsman executes a straight drive,Nechim instinctively puts his left hand down to field the ball,but at the last minute jerks away letting the ball fly past.
Nechim wistfully watches the ball while he nurses the hand that had been fractured a month back when he dived for a catch in a India Red vs India Green game. My hand is more or less all right now,but once you have been injured you are always worried that you might injure yourself once again.
The injury saw the 22-year-old Nechim,undoubtedly the spearhead of the Assam pace attack miss the first two matches of the Ranji Trophy season. Ever since I had started playing cricket I had never suffered a serious injury. So when I missed my first two matches of the Super League after I fractured my hand,it was very disappointing. But there was no point getting upset about it. So I decided to make the best my time-off. I decided to hit the gym so that I could come back stronger than before.
After two matches on the sidelines,Nechim made his comeback against Bengal on a flat Eden Gardens wicket that saw 1150 runs made in two innings with a total of 12 wickets falling. Nechim,who ended with a single wicket in that match,insisted that bowling on such an unforgiving wicket was not a bad idea.
While the injury was not on my bowling hand,the plaster made it difficult to bowl. Considering this was my first match after the injury I was quite rusty. With every match I play,I am only going to get my rhythm going again. In my second match against Mumbai,again I only took one wicket,but I felt I was unlucky as I was bowling quite well. he said.
As bowlers in India,we usually have to bowl on flat tracks but this pitch looks to offer plenty of help for the bowlers I hope to do much better against Delhi, he says gesturing towards the Roshanara wicket that exudes healthy grassy look.
As if to prove his point,a few balls later he sends down a snorter of a delivery that has Assam opener Shibsankar Roy falling over in a attempt to avoid it. For the rest of the session Nechim continues to bowl short of good length and wide trying to draw the batsman to edge the ball to a imaginary gully he has in place.
Nechims hand soon starts hurting. He places a ice-pack and calls for the physio. It is nothing serious. But tommorow will be an important day for me. I only hope everything will go well.
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