Indian fast bowler Kuldeep Sen, who was dealing with his injuries for more than two years is back to field. He suffered back injury during the training of the second ODI against Bangladesh in December 2022.
During January 2024, he made his first-class comeback by paying three games in IPL for Rajasthan Royals in Indian Premier League 2024. But unfortunately during the IPL 2024, he got knee injury. He made his comeback by playing Madhya Pradesh’s previous Ranji Trophy match, against Kerala last week. He is also ready to play for Punjab Kings in IPL 2025.
“I was quite frustrated. But Rahul (Dravid) sir and Rohit (Sharma) bhaiya encouraged me. They told me that I have a lot of potential and that I would soon get fit and play for the Indian team again.” Kuldeep Sen said.
“As a fast bowler, you have to be ready for injuries,” Sen told ESPNcricinfo. “An injury does not announce itself, there is no timeline for it but I have definitely worked on reducing it. Even when I was recovering from injury, my focus was to come back as soon as possible.”
“During this time, I have worked on my lines and lengths according to the longer and shorter format of the game. For a fast bowler, it’s important to be mentally strong. During my recovery, I worked on my fitness for the longer format as it makes it easier to prepare for the shorter format.”
During 2022, Sen gave his best performance. While playing for Rest of India in the first game of the Irani Cup in 2022, he took eight wickets, including a five-wicket haul. Kuldeep Sen was also named as highest wicket-taker for MP in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2022-23.
However, his brilliant performances in IPL 2022 for Rajasthan Royals highlighted his name. These included defending 14 runs in the last over against Lucknow Super Giants’ Marcus Stoinis on IPL debut, and his outstanding bowling helped Royals defend target of 144 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, by taking four wickets.
“Everyone was happy with my performance in the Lucknow match. My confidence grew after that game,” Sen expressed. “But the performance against RCB took my confidence to a different level because in this match, I took the wickets of the players whom I used to watch on TV.”
Kuldeep Sen belongs to Rewa, a city in MP. His journey was full of efforts and struggles.
“I started playing by borrowing a cricket kit from my friends. For a long time, even in domestic cricket, I played wearing borrowed shoes from Ishwar (Pandey) bhaiya”. He added.
“I started playing cricket at the age of 13-14. I didn’t think of becoming a cricketer then, it was just fun to play the game,” Sen further added. “There was no TV at home and when matches came on Doordarshan, there was an option to go and watch TV in the neighbourhood.”
This time in IPL 2025, Punjab Kings is giving him first trial after his comeback.
