Mumbai fast bowler Tushar Deshpande is keen to make up for lost time after missing the entire 2024-25 domestic season with a major ankle injury.
After undergoing surgery for it last October, Deshpande was hoping to return to action for the Ranji Trophy knockouts in February 2025, but his rehab needed more time. The 30-year-old eventually made his comeback in IPL 2025 for Rajasthan Royals (RR) and then proved his red-ball fitness for India A against England Lions in Northampton in June.
More recently, in the lead-up to the Duleep Trophy, Deshpande bowled 18 overs in Chennai's unforgiving heat against Haryana in a three-day Buchi Babu fixture.
"I have put in a lot of effort, actually," Deshpande said in Chennai. "It was a major ankle surgery and that being my landing foot, it was necessary that I get operated at that moment of time because coming ahead are a lot of international tours as well. I'm aiming for that and I'm feeling good now for the start of the season.
"The aspiration is always to play Test cricket for India, but I'm taking one match at a time, one day at a point, and just following a good process and keeping myself fit because I've lost considerable time off the game last year. So just keeping myself fit so I can again hit the hard yards for Mumbai."
With an India A series coming up against Australia A at home from September, Deshpande hopes to perform well in the Duleep Trophy and stay in the mix for the two unofficial Tests in Lucknow.
"Absolutely, like I said, now I'm fit and fine," Deshpande said. "So any challenge which comes up, I'm ready for it. Playing in England also... I was ready for the challenge. Even if I would have been called for the Test squad, I was ready for it because I did well in the second game which I played for India A.
"So everything revolves around my fitness. Last year I wasn't fit, I had a surgery that's why I was away from the game. Now I'm fit and fine, so I always wanted to play the game and play for India."
Ahead of the Buchi Babu tournament and Duleep Trophy, Deshpande had built up his loads by working with Troy Cooley, the bowling coach at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, as part of a targeted group of fast bowlers.
"I've been working with Troy since last season as well and his input has been good revolving around the workloads for the multi-day format," Deshpande said. "Like if you see in a four-day match, a fast bowler needs to bowl around 30-35 overs to put in intensity. We worked on it for a week, like how we go about [bowling] 35 overs, which I'm able to bowl in the two innings of a four-day match [now]. So most preparations were revolving around that alone."
Deshpande is a fairly capable batter too - he had scored a maiden first-class century against Baroda from No. 11 in the Ranji quarter-finals last year. Having started his cricket as a batter, it comes naturally to him, he said, and he has also been working on it to become a better-rounded player.
"Fast bowling was the second thing which I later picked up in my career when I was at Under-13. So, I feel batting comes naturally to me, but my dad always told me that if you bat with patience you'll be a good batter," Deshpande said. "He just told me 'don't throw your wicket away and let the bowler earn your wicket'.
"During my hundred, Tanush [Kotian] trusted me and rotated the strike - so credit goes to him as well. I had scored 70-odd runs [62 from No. 7] against MP [Madhya Pradesh] back in 2016 in my debut season."
Deshpande had an up-and-down IPL 2025 for RR, picking up nine wickets in ten matches at an economy rate of over 10. With the Impact Player rule encouraging batters to go harder, Deshpande wasn't reading too much into those numbers.
"The IPL is a high-pressure environment and the way after the Impact Player where the game is going, you cannot judge a bowler by a single game or the runs he gives or the wickets he picks," Deshpande said. "I always bowled in the powerplay and the death. Those are the tough situations of the game.
"And some or the other game will go my way or the batsman's way. So it was very important for me to be level-headed because earlier for CSK [Chennai Super Kings] I was the highest wicket-taker [17 in IPL 2024]. A year before that also I was the highest wicket-taker for CSK [21 in IPL 2023]. Bowlers can't be a lot harder on themselves because even good balls are going for runs."
In isolation, Deshpande had finished his IPL season well by keeping his former CSK team-mates MS Dhoni and Shivam Dube quiet in a 19th over that cost RR just six runs on a flat surface in Delhi.
"[Got] a lot of confidence from that over," Deshpande said. "It's always pressure bowling to Mahi bhai because he's the best finisher in the world. I was kind of trying to impress him and just wanted to bowl my best ball to him. Before last season, I had never bowled to him in an official game."
In July 2024, Deshpande made his international debut in T20Is and held the trophy aloft after his team had won the series in Harare. Injury then set him back, but fit and firing again, Deshpande is ready to put himself back in the national reckoning.