March 2025. After an intense bowling session in the nets on an oppressive afternoon, Shivam Mavi waited on the sidelines as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) debated an injury replacement for Mohsin Khan.
For a brief while, Mavi's hopes had gone up. Unsold at the IPL 2025 auction, a back-door entry into the big league loomed. But Shardul Thakur beat him to it. Mavi was broken. Yet, deep down he knew the only way back was to rebuild himself, piece by piece, into the bowler teams could trust again.
"Obviously IPL franchises may have taken note of my back-to-back injuries," Mavi tells ESPNcricinfo on the sidelines of the Uttar Pradesh T20 League, where he's representing Kashi Rudras. "Maybe they thought this guy is way too injury-prone and may be a risky auction pick.
"But, during the season, LSG called me [for trials] only because they saw I was fully fit and performing. My focus was simple: do what I could control and if I got the chance, play as much as possible and perform."
Things were a lot more promising just two years earlier, when Mavi was among Indian cricket's bright and upcoming fast-bowling prospects. He had broken through into the T20I setup, combining high pace and late swing. The ability to hit sixes down the order was a bonus. But six T20Is and seven wickets later, his top-flight career hit a roadblock.
Mavi noticed his pace drop. He couldn't generate the old zip off the pitch. And without swing, he lost another key ally of his trade. He watched IPL 2023 come and go on the Gujarat Titans' bench, despite being a costly INR 6 crore pick.
Although disappointed, Mavi looked to the upcoming domestic season as a chance to prove himself all over again. But just as he began preparing, there was another blow: a side strain followed by a rib stress fracture ended his 2023-24 campaign before it had even begun. The final sting came when the BCCI dropped him from its targeted pool of players.
Mavi was down, emotionally and otherwise, but not all was lost. LSG picked him at the auction for INR 6.4 crore despite the setbacks. If fit, there was hope he would be in the mix to challenge for a spot in the XI, considering they had traded Avesh Khan to Rajasthan Royals. But to Mavi's misfortune, he pulled up with an injury during a fitness test prior to the start of the season.
Determined to break the cycle, Mavi turned to former India team physio Ashish Kaushik. He checked in to Kaushik's private facility in Bengaluru, dissecting his biomechanics and rebuilding from scratch. It took a year of working on his action and fine-tuning to be fully fit and ready.
"Every time I increased my workload, the stress reaction on my side became evident," Mavi says. "It wasn't random. It was because of my action. I used to fall away on the left side while delivering. As the spell went on, it became worse. That's what caused the strain.
"Ashish sir helped me understand that the flexion on my side was the reason. Now my body weight doesn't go sideways, even at the end of a long spell. Until that point, no one had looked at my action to this extent before."
The results have been encouraging: for the first time in years, Mavi says he is pain-free.
"I can bowl long spells without discomfort. I can push my body again. I've understood fitness is something you need to constantly work on," he says. "Since last year, I've been able to play without discomfort. That's been the biggest win. Bowling-wise, I've put in a lot of work on my action and because of that, my rhythm feels better, the pace hasn't dropped."
Not just the physical pain, the lengthy rehab also tested him in other ways. Alone in Bengaluru, away from family, doing the same set of drills every day, monotony hit him hard. "It was irritating," he says with a chuckle. "It was mentally challenging. But I kept telling myself 'when my chance comes, I shouldn't let it slip'. That thought kept me going."
The Mavi of today is different from the one that broke down often in the past. His speeds are back close to 145kph, his action looks smoother, and his rhythm has returned. In the UP T20 League, he's been in stride, not just as a new-ball bowler, but as an allrounder.
His first six games have brought him ten wickets and a 21-ball 54 in which he hit six sixes. "Earlier, I used to think I'm just a bowler. Now, I work equally on my batting," he says. "In T20s, when you come in at the death, you don't have time. You have to hit from ball one. I've been preparing for that role."
After having played the entire 2024-25 season without breaking down, Mavi couldn't have asked for a better lead-in to the upcoming domestic season. For now, he's focused on continuing to push the bar at the UP T20, but doesn't hesitate when asked about the bigger picture.
"An India comeback," he says. "Whichever match I play, I want to focus solely on that and do well. If I keep doing that, the India comeback will take care of itself."