Former IPL all-rounder Rajat Bhatia says Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah need a new training method. He says he first raised it at a conclave in 2020.
“मैंने 2020 के कॉन्क्लेव में यह बोला था कि हार्दिक पांड्या और बुमराह ये दो ऐसे हैं जिनका हमें ट्रेनिंग मेथड चेंज करना पड़ेगा… क्या वो ठीक हुए? नहीं हुए ना?”
“I said at the 2020 conclave that Hardik Pandya and Bumrah are two players whose training method we will have to change… Did they get fixed? They didn’t, did they?”
Rajat Bhatia, podcast with Taruwar Kohli, September 2026
His case, made on Taruwar Kohli’s podcast, is that Indian players keep breaking down because of how they train, not how they bowl.
The three players at the centre of his argument have all been injured in 2026.
| Player | Latest injury | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Hardik Pandya | Quadriceps, after IPL 2026 | Rehab at the BCCI Centre of Excellence. Gautam Gambhir says he cannot bowl 10 overs yet. Left out of the West Indies tour. |
| Jasprit Bumrah | Left knee, fielding in the second ODI against England in Cardiff, 16 July | Returned in the first T20I against Afghanistan in Delhi |
| Nitish Kumar Reddy | Left quadriceps, third ODI against Afghanistan, June | Missed the England and Ireland white-ball tours |
Whether Bhatia is right is one question. The harder one is why a player who agrees with him still cannot walk out of the team gym.
Bhatia says most gym work in cricket is borrowed from bodybuilding. Deadlifts, squats, snatches and bench presses move weight up and down in straight lines, with the load kept close to the body.
Cricket asks for something else. Batting, bowling and throwing all run on rotation and on shifting weight from one leg to the other. Train one pattern and play another, he argues, and the body adapts to the wrong one.
His answer is Functional Patterns, a system built around how humans stand, walk, run and throw.
Nitish Kumar Reddy is his live example. Reddy worked with fast-bowling coach Steffan Jones before IPL 2026 and went from the 120s to around 140 kmph. In June, MRI scans showed fibre disruption in his left quadriceps.
“अभी नीतीश कुमार रेड्डी एक सो कॉल्ड गुरु के पास गया और उसने अपनी पेस इंक्रीज़ की… उसने अपनी पेस तो इंक्रीज़ करी बट बॉडी इंजर्ड हो गई। सो व्हाट्स द पॉइंट इन हैविंग अ कार इन योर गैराज जिसको आप चलाओ और वो बार-बार गैराज में आके खड़ी हो जाए?”
“Nitish Kumar Reddy went to a so-called guru and increased his pace… He did increase his pace, but his body got injured. So what’s the point of having a car in your garage that you drive, and it keeps coming back to the garage?”
Rajat Bhatia, podcast with Taruwar Kohli, September 2026
Bhatia goes further than the critics who blamed the pace jump. He says the training did not create the pace at all, and that the right training would have brought more pace with fewer injuries. Jones has already dismissed critics who linked the injury to the extra speed.
He believes Indian cricket is stuck in a cycle nobody breaks.
“वह लूप जो है ना वो इंजरी का है। रिहैब, प्रीहैब, इंजर्ड, रेस्ट। रिहैब, प्रीहैब, इंजर्ड, रेस्ट। आप इसी लूप में ही फंसे रहोगे।”
“That loop is the injury loop. Rehab, prehab, injured, rest. Rehab, prehab, injured, rest. You will stay stuck in this loop.”
Rajat Bhatia, podcast with Taruwar Kohli, September 2026
He is clear he is not against the BCCI and calls the Centre of Excellence‘s infrastructure superb. His problem is how it is used.
Bhatia played 10 IPL seasons for Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Rising Pune Supergiant before retiring in July 2020. Injuries dragged his bowling down to 110 to 115 kmph. As a professional in England, he says, he played only after taking the muscle relaxant Myospaz.
He started studying Functional Patterns in 2016, has reached its fourth biomechanics level, and tested it on himself in his last Ranji season with Uttarakhand. He says only two people practise the system in India.
Why Players Cannot Say No to the Team Trainer
Fixing a body is the easy part. Going back to the team is where it falls apart. A player who drops deadlifts at an outside clinic returns to a trainer who runs his sessions, and one line from that trainer saying he is not following the plan can send him home.
That is why players who reach Bhatia ask him to keep their names secret. They take the fix quietly, then walk back into a gym where the session starts with who can lift the most. Bhatia says the two methods cannot be mixed, so the body is corrected for a few weeks and then pulled straight back into the pattern that broke it.
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