From recovery to training, it’s a paradise for any athlete: Gill hails BCCI CoE for his neck injury rehab

In New Delhi on December 8, the cricket reporters from LatestNewsX heard Shubman Gill talk up the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence after saying it was a key part of his speedy recovery ahead of the T20I series versus South Africa.

Gill had taken a neck injury in the first Test against the Proteas in Kolkata the previous month, which meant he missed the second Test and the entire ODI tri‑series. He headed straight to the BCCI CoE to begin rehab, and he’s now back in India’s colours, ready to face the South Africans in a five‑match T20I series that starts on Tuesday.

The BCCI posted a video on social media in which the player described his recovery in detail. 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 about the facilities at the CoE and how the NCA shaped his early 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.”

He went on to recall his youth days: “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 praised the coaches and support staff 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.”

With Gill re‑enters the squad, the Men in Blue are set to kick off the series at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Tuesday.

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