India, April 14 -- The one person Praful Hinge thanked while accepting the player of the match award after his life-changing spell of fast bowling on IPL debut was Naveen Babu, the physio at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai with whom the Nagpur bowler spent six months for rehab after a stress fracture of the back.

A physio is indeed a fast bowler's best friend. In 2023, forget the IPL stage, Hinge hadn't even started playing for his state team. He was just an upcoming U23 Vidarbha talent- untapped, raw, and broken physically and mentally due to the back injury. From the high of being picked for the foundation with the prospect of working with Glenn McGrath, Hinge was staring at months of inactivity and rehab.

"Rehabs can be long and b...