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India and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) speedster Deepak Chahar talked about the importance of gaining strength and said that it helps a fast bowler to gain strength and increase pace. While speaking at an event of the CSK, Chahar said that when one athlete is playing or continuing their rehab, they are losing strength, so the season break is the perfect time for a player to recover. “When you’re doing rehab – or just playing – you’re not gaining strength. You’re losing the strength of your body. So this is the right time for me or any athlete… when you get one-and-a-half months or two months, you need to gain strength. If you gain strength you increase your pace as well,” Chahar was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.

He added that when a fast bowler is playing continuously it gets hard for them to “do strength training” for which they lose pace.

Chahar further added that he has been doing well now with both batting and bowling.

“So, yeah, when I played in 2018, I was nearly bowling around 140ks. When you’re playing regularly you don’t get the chance to do strength training and your pace comes down. This is the right time for me to increase my pace. Skill-wise, I’ve obviously been doing well with batting and bowling. So I’m trying to develop a few shots with the bat too, because when you bat at No. 8 or No. 9, you only get to play three-four balls. So you have to utilise those balls with different shots,” he added.

Chahar made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut in the 2016 season, and following that he has appeared in 73 matches where he picked up 72 wickets.

In IPL 2023, the 31-year-old bagged 13 wickets in 10 games and gave the Chennai-based franchise some important breakthroughs with the new ball. During his past five-year stint with CSK, Chahar’s performance has been consistent.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)