Shortly after finishing the 2015 World Cup as Zimbabwe’s best bowler, Tendai Chatara got injured playing football and was out for five months. Making a comeback wasn’t easy
Karthik Krishnaswamy in Nagpur07-Mar-2016The training area at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur seems deliberately designed to help teams practice covertly, away from the gaze of the opposition and the media. A tarpaulin-sheathed fence obstructs the view from behind the bowler’s arm, and palm trees at strategic intervals ensure you cannot watch unimpeded even if you situate yourself on a staircase landing. The fabric of the nets is dark and tightly woven, and batsmen viewed through it are hazy silhouettes at best.On Monday, people watching Zimbabwe practice would not have been able to tell which of players was looking in good form ahead of the World T20, and which of them was developing a new variation or practising a new shot. But there was joy to be had simply by watching the bowlers run up and deliver the ball into a mysteriously opaque net. Because one of the run-ups culminated in a familiar leap and delivery stride, with left arm motionless.Tendai Chatara was back. Zimbabwe’s quickest bowler was back.Chatara’s last international match came during the 2015 World Cup, where he was Zimbabwe’s highest wicket-taker. A few weeks later, he broke his left shin.”Normally, during the off-season, to keep up with the fitness level I used to play soccer,” Chatara says. “I was playing a social game with the guys, I was playing centre-forward. So I got a through-ball from the midfield, then, as I was going to [run onto the ball] I collided with the keeper, trying to score – which I did, I scored – but I collided with the keeper, and then I broke my shin.”Close to five months of rest followed, with his left leg immobilised in a cast. “Just sitting, elevate the leg, spend lot of hours in bed, watching movies. Basically that’s what I used to do,” he says. “Even then I would do the upper body [exercises], just to keep [in shape].”Waiting for the leg to heal was difficult, and Chatara would often turn to videos of his Test-match-winning 5 for 61 against Pakistan in 2013, to gee himself up. “I’d picture myself back into internationals, trying to get the motivation from those clips, and actually see what I’m capable of.”Returning to bowling was just as difficult, even with a fully healed fracture. This was Chatara’s landing leg, and he had to learn to trust it again.”It was really difficult, but the mindset – you know, when I spoke to the doc, he said, ‘your shin is a hundred per cent, but it’s only in your mind, because you’re not gonna break it again. It’s now stronger than it was before, so you will not break it.’ It was just the mindset, trying to put my mind together, so that when I play it won’t affect me to use it, thinking maybe it will break again.”Chatara says former South Africa fast bowler Makhaya Ntini, Zimbabwe’s new bowling coach, has been a big help in getting him back in the groove.”During the first few days, I would be worried with my leg, not actually [landing my weight fully on it], just trying to put it there and try to use the upper body. [Ntini] gave me quite a few tips about it, saying, ‘you broke your leg but now it’s all right, you know? Use it. The more you use it the more you get used to using the leg and the more power behind your ball.’ I’ve been trying to ask a lot of questions of him, actually learning a lot from him.”Chatara returned to domestic cricket in January, and has played one List A game and four T20s for Mountaineers. Since then, he’s also played three of Zimbabwe’s four practice games leading up to the World T20. In all that time, he says he hasn’t been clocked on a speedgun. “I’m looking forward to this tournament, to see where I am.”During his injury layoff, Tendai Chatara watched clips of his memorable performances – like the five-for in the Test win against Pakistan – to motivate himself•Associated PressBefore his injury, Chatara consistently hit speeds in the low 140 kph range, and was perhaps Zimbabwe’s quickest-ever bowler.”Hmmmmmmmmm, yeaaaah,” he says, when you put that proposition before him. “Ah. There was Henry Olonga. Yeah, Olonga used to bowl quick. Travis Friend, those guys, but I think, going back to the 2015 World Cup, I was quite up there with the quickest, could have been better if it wasn’t because of the injury, but I think, with more work in, I’ll be up there.”Hamilton Masakadza, Zimbabwe’s captain, knows what Chatara offers: “He brings a lot of control, a lot of pace and bounce, which is something that we’ve been missing a little bit of in the recent past.”And in combination with Tinashe Panyangara, Chatara gives Zimbabwe potency with the new ball. Consider their numbers from the 2015 World Cup. On the surface, they aren’t earth shattering. On the surface, you could even call them ordinary: 10 wickets at 34.20 and an economy rate of 5.73 for Chatara; five wickets at 78.40 and an economy rate of 7.04 for Panyangara. But the numbers get a lot more interesting below the surface.Of all the teams at the World Cup, Zimbabwe were the most frugal with the new ball, conceding only 3.25 runs per over in the first 10 overs. And this was down to Chatara and Panyangara, who were the two most economical first-ten overs bowlers in the entire tournament, among those who sent down a minimum of 100 balls. Chatara’s economy rate in the first 10 overs was 3.24, and Panyangara’s was 3.33.As good as they were with the new ball, Zimbabwe were hapless at the slog. They were the most expensive bowling unit in the last 10 overs of innings, conceding 11.09 runs per over. Chatara’s economy in the last 10 overs was 9.62, and Panyangara’s was worse – 14.14.It’s curious, this contrast between new ball and old.”At the World Cup, in Australia, you’ll get a lot of assistance, so me and Tinashe we would just tell ourselves, early on just try and hit the wicket as hard as you can, and you’ll get a lot of assistance,” Chatara says. “We were not actually worried about swing too much because we’re gonna get it anyway, but trying to bowl the ball, you know, trying to hit the wicket hard.”I think our death [bowling] wasn’t that great because we would have, me and Tinashe, bowling probably four-five overs at the death. You’d bowl two-three good ones, but you know, you get in [another over], you become predictable, guys would be used to you bowling five overs at the death. Guys like Australia, you have three-four guys who can bowl death, but us, it could get predictable, because it was just me and Tinashe at the death again.”Since then the guys have put a lot of effort into their death [bowling]. Obviously in this tournament it’s going to be much better, taking into consideration that it’s only going to be two overs [per bowler] at the death.”Chatara has clear plans for bowling on Indian pitches during the World T20.”In the subcontinent, the ball tends to skid a lot and turn as well,” he says. “So if you hit the deck hard, you obviously get the rewards. If I’m bowling in the Powerplay I look to hit the wicket as hard as I can, and try to bowl that hip-to-heart length.”Quite a few guys in the subcontinent are more comfortable when you bowl it fuller to them, so that [hip-to-heart length] would be my general plan. Try and hit the wicket hard, and in the death come in and hit my yorkers and vary the pace here and there.”For the next few months, Chatara wants to ease himself back into limited-overs action, and feel his way back to going full-tilt again. “But if I get my leg to be the way I want it to be, I will focus on Tests,” he says. “I love Tests. To me it is cricket. If I keep on playing, just to play Tests is the best thing that could happen to me.”
