Shoaib Akhtar must be one bowler who makes news more for the number of times that he sits outside on one count or the other, the major ones being the nagging injuries that he suffers on a regular basis. Since the time he has made his debut, injuries have also followed him through out his career with the same flourish. His last outing, which was done with quite a lot of fanfare was in the
IPL match in Kolkata, where he was drafted in as the strike bowler, but it ended in a whimper when his injuries forced him to sit out of the matches once again.
Most of the times Akhtar has developed injury on his knees. He is one bowler who generates quite a lot of pace through a long run up and this run up takes a heavy toll on his knees. It is on account of the fact that he is heavily overweight for his frame. So, the knees, which are attuned to bearing, the burden of the normal body weight start getting compressed and tend to snap. He has also not tried to cut down either his body weight or the run up i.e. cut down the pace and compensate it up with new improvisations in his bowling in a regular and consistent manner. It is because of his injuries that he has been ruled out of the two-match fixture against Sri Lanka though he is only 33 years of age.
Preliminary reports indicated that he might have to go under the scalp but Akhtar has the hope that by resting he may avoid it. He has already been operated upon his knees in 2006, and there are distinct possibilities that he may have to forego whole year of cricket if he is operated upon once again. Akhtar, who was dropped from the third one-match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka informed that based on the copy of the MRI scan reports that he had sent to Australia and New Zealand, the doctors there had advised him not to go for operations.
He is one of the few pace bowlers who are really heavy; otherwise fat bowlers have been rather mean and thin through out the cricketing history, only notable exception being Mervin Hughes of Australia. But Hughes used to take care of himself and did not suffer so many injuries as did Akhtar.
