Sometime in 2010, he was in his teens when he had to leave his modest home in Bihar and move to neighbouring West Bengal on the pretext of finding a job. In 2015, he lost his father and elder brother in the space of a few months. Even in mid-2025, as he was bowling India to victory against England in the second Test at Edgbaston with a match haul of 10 for 187, his elder sister was battling cancer.
Akash Deep’s early years were engulfed by one ordeal after another.
“I take everything positively. Even when I am practising, there are four or five members from the support staff. There are so many things set up for you to succeed. “If I was still back in my village, there wouldn’t have been anyone to even tell me I am injured. I didn’t see this phase as needing mental toughness. There was nothing to be depressed about. I had such a well-drilled system looking after me. You have to just wake up and work hard. There is nothing else to think about. It is a blessing to have such things. So I was motivated and positive throughout. Akash Deep will make his return to competitive cricket in the Irani Cup. | Photo Credit: IMRAN NISSAR “When you are playing so much cricket through the year, I thought it was normal to feel stiffness. In the first innings of the semifinal, it was fine. In the second innings, I started feeling pain in my left glute and hamstring,” recalled Akash. “I didn’t feel anything in my back. We had a small total to defend. I took two wickets in six overs in the final session of day three. I was feeling stiffness overnight. I wanted to put in maximum effort. While bowling, I didn’t feel much. But when my body cooled, I started feeling it. There was a camp in the CoE after that. They took a scan and it showed a stress fracture in the lower back. “By God’s grace, the good thing in my case has been that I have recovered very quickly from injuries. I knew that even if it is a stress fracture, I would recover well if I followed all the processes correctly. Yes, I would have to miss some cricket. But I also felt that my body was demanding rest. I had never taken a very long break. Even when I had injuries, I had to miss cricket for a month at the most. “But when you are in the thick of the action, you tend to forget a lot of things. You just give it your all. You can never know about injuries. You have to play through phases. You don’t know what that can lead to. To be honest, if it is a do-or-die match, it is very hard to hold back. But I can try to be smarter about situations where it is needed and where it is not needed.”
It will be his return to competitive action — his last outing was for Bengal against J&K in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy semifinal in February. But I thought I will get a break after the game for 7-8 days. I bowled a spell of 10 overs with that on the morning of day four. I had been playing regularly for 8-9 years.
These are blessings,” Akash, donning a training jersey and shorts, said in a chat with The Hindu. I didn’t take it in a negative way,” he said. The months at CoE, according to Akash, were put to very good use.
If I am injured today, I have the Centre of Excellence, a trainer, a physio and a coach. Akash was offering his perspective at a five-star hotel in Srinagar on Tuesday, two days out from the Irani Cup fixture between Rest of India and Jammu & Kashmir at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium.
