Suryakumar Yadav knew he “hadn’t touched the rope” and that he’d made the split-second decision of going all out for the catch the moment he saw Rohit Sharma further away from the ball at long-on as compared to him at long-off.
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Suryakumar said that such balance and agility wouldn’t have been possible without working on his fitness. He spent four months on the sidelines from November 2023 to March 2024, recovering from a sports hernia and an ankle injury. It was during this period that he worked on slimming down as part of his fitness regimen which also included working with a nutritionist.
“I remember last August, I was at around 93kg, maybe because I was having too much local food,” he said. “I got injured and then had a hernia operation. I went to NCA [BCCI’s National Cricket Academy] from January 1 to April 1 [this year]. Even during off days, I used to not go home because I knew Monday morning would be my session. I couldn’t waste time.
“I ate proper food prepared by my chef. I used to sleep sharp at 10pm and get up early in the morning. Even now, I have decided on my meals for the next week with the help of the chef and nutritionist; they decide how much protein and fat I will have daily, how much water I need to take with my food. We have a group for it which also has my wife. They decide and I just follow. It helped me here.”
How has he soaked that moment in, along with the euphoria of being a world champion?
“In those four to five seconds, whatever happened, I can’t explain,” he said. “The amount of reaction I have been getting for that, people have been calling, messaging; there are more than 1000 unread WhatsApp messages on my phone. The catch is all over social media. I’m grateful that I was there in those five seconds of play.”