India, July 25 -- India pacer Mayank Yadav has described the two-year injury-enforced absence from international cricket as the most difficult phase of his young career, admitting that battling repeated setbacks at the age of 22-23 tested him mentally.

Playing his first game for India since October 2024, against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club on Thursday, the injury-prone speedster cranked up serious pace from the get-go. He said the dream of representing the country kept him going during the difficult rehabilitation period.

"It was very difficult. The two-year gap was very challenging for me as a person... I was only 22-23 years old at that time, so that always affected me that I had to go through so much at such a young age," Maya...