Comebacks make for a good read. There is nothing more fascinating than a story about perseverance and redemption. Joginder Sharma, known for his match-winning final over in the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, has made one such comeback.
Though he played a couple of matches last season as well, Monday was his redemption. The Haryana medium-pacer took five wickets against defending Ranji Trophy champions Mumbai to stop the visitors from taking a significant lead in the match. It was his best performance since he recovered from a big accident which took place around two years back.
‘“After the injury I was in the hospital for 10-11 days and another 3-4 days in the ICU. That was followed by 3-4 months’ bed rest. After nine months I met the physio. It all seemed tough, in fact the first 4-5 months were the toughest of my life and I don’t want to remember that,’” Joginder, affectionately called Jogi by teammates, said after the day’s play.
‘“I spoke to doctor about the injury… comeback was tough but my physio Amit Tyagi helped, Anirudh Sir helped, I took the doctors’ advice and worked hard. But then I started training, played a couple of matches and slowly recovered.’”
‘“I am thankful to (Ranbir Singh) Mahendra ji (for supporting me during my tough days) as I was coming back from a big accident,’” he added.
Talking about Ajay Jadeja, who is leading Haryana in this match, Joginder said, ‘“His arrival has changed the atmosphere in the team, he knows so much about the game. I have heard today only that he was known as guruji in the Indian team. He has a different way of leading the side, inspiring the players, setting the fields.’”
For Mumbai, skipper Zaheer Khan and young left-arm spinner Vishal Dabholkar — both picked up four wickets each on the second day — did the job.
Haryana batsmen were controlling the game when Dabholkar was introduced and clear instruction was to wrest back the control. ‘“I was told by my captain to control the game, stick to a particular line. The main plan was to just bowl maiden overs, give less runs,’” Dabholkar said of his performance.
He also said that Mumbai would look to go for an outright win in the match. ‘“We will look to go for outright. We have got good batsmen and a win will be good motivation,’” he added.