When South Africa spinner Keshav Maharaj first came out of surgery in March after rupturing his Achilles tendon, he had little prospect of competing at the World Cup in India, but he is now travelling to the competition with newfound optimism. The World Cup will take place in India from April 5 to April 14.
The injury occurred during the 33-year-old player’s celebration of a wicket during a Test match against the West Indies in Johannesburg, and he needed to be carried off the field on a stretcher as a result.
“After I came out of surgery, I said I must I give myself every chance,” he told reporters on Thursday. “But when you see how slow the initial phases of rehab are, you have negative thoughts,”
“Three or four months after surgery, I wouldn’t have said I would have gotten here,” the patient said. “But with my medical team, we plotted the journey, and they gave me the best chance.”
In the One-Day International series that is currently being played between Australia and India, Maharaj has made his comeback to the team and has played in two of the three matches as both teams prepare for India.
“I put my head down and made a lot of sacrifices, from the standpoint of my diet, from the standpoint of my time in rehab, from the standpoint of my time in recovery, making sure that I was getting between eight and ten hours of sleep every night.
“I may not have made it there, but it was about giving yourself the best chance to get back to a place where you feel like you belong,” she said. “It was about giving myself the best chance to get there.”
Since my ancestors came from India, I have a strong desire to travel there someday and see if I can accomplish something noteworthy for the place that I call home. That provided me with the drive that I required.
“The 50-over format is really taxing on the body, but I wanted to experience it since it was something different. I try to push myself to new limits whenever I can.
After around four months of recovery from surgery, Maharaj was still shuffling around in a “moon boot.”
“Then, after five months, I began to believe after I got back on my feet and started running again. After that, I had the epiphany that the ideal could become a reality, and we could work toward our fitness goals.
On Tuesday, South Africa defeated Australia at Potchefstroom by 111 runs to cut their series deficit to 2-1. Maharaj was one of the stars of the game for South Africa on this day.
“There is obviously some room for improvement, but it is building up towards something. ” The most important thing is that I am able to use my skills,” he went on to say.
On Friday, the fourth One-Day International will take place in Pretoria.