It is the lowest phase of my career, says Mandeep Singh after disastrous IPL campaign

What’s the story?

Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman Mandeep Singh is keen to forget the past and move forward after a dismal IPL campaign which was made a more harrowing experience for the 25-year-old after a recent MRI scan revealed a disc prolapse in the lower back with the doctors suggesting surgery.

The Jalandhar-born cricketer is however not so keen to go under the knife and prefers rest and rehabilitation. After failing to capitalise on the chances that came his way with the likes of KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan missing out on the 2017 IPL due to injury for the RCB, Mandeep admits that he is feeling down and out at the moment.

“It is not easy to bear failure with form. I was being moved up and down in the batting order and the form was not clicking. I was down in the dumps. I have had good showings for RCB in the past. The failure was hard to digest,” he said. “It is certainly the lowest phase in my career. I hope to see through it soon and attain fitness.”

In case you didn’t know...

Mandeep, who started out his IPL career with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2010 before moving to Kings XI Punjab the following season, has been with RCB since 2015, but he is yet to replicate the form that he showed during the 2012 edition when he had scored 432 runs from 16 matches.

Having missed the 2016 IPL due to injury, Mandeep was keen to make amends this time around but instead failed miserably scoring just 188 runs from 11 matches before the pain in his lower back became unbearable and he was forced to sit out of RCB’s final few games of the season.

Extra Cover: IPL 2017: Virat Kohli thankful to RCB fans for their support, promises to back with a bang next year

The details

Like Mandeep, RCB had a dismal campaign finishing bottom of the points table and the cricketer feels that he was not helped by the fact that his batting position was being shifted around a lot as the team management tried desperately to put things right.

Mandeep revealed that he had been playing through the pain for over a year with the help of painkillers. With the MRI results in hand, Mandeep consulted the physiotherapists at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and has opted to undergo rehabilitation instead of surgery.

The leading run-scorer in the 2015 Vijay Hazare Trophy, Mandeep is an accomplished player in the domestic circuit for Punjab with more than 4000 first-class runs under his belt and is keen to add to his three T20 international caps for India.

But he admits that regaining the fitness is his main agenda at the moment and is aiming to recover successfully before the new domestic season starts.

What’s next?

As stated earlier, Mandeep will undergo four weeks of rehabilitation as advised by the NSA physio and will follow it up with a strengthening session in order to regain full fitness in time for the new domestic season.

Extra Cover: IPL 2017: Pawan Negi, RCB's only take away from the season

Author’s take

The 2017 IPL campaign was one which the entire RCB family would like to forget and Mandeep is no different. Having started out miserably, the 25-year-old finally seemed like he had struck some sort of form by scoring 46 and 52 runs in consecutive matches before injury struck, bringing his season to an end.

With proper rest and recovery, let’s hope that Mandeep can regain the form that saw him earn a place in the Indian T20 side.