The arm that almost gave way, now lifts five in defiance

Last week, Lucknow's faithful had a rare moment to cherish. On Sunday (April 26) Mohsin Khan brought a half-empty stadium to its feet as he left the field in the 11th over.

By that time, the seamer had already claimed 5 for 23 against KKR. He made a small prayer as he walked off, his tall frame lumbering to one of the dugout seats, where he would remain for a long time – perhaps contemplating the journey he has been on.

Four years ago, the arm that claimed five could not be raised, afflicted by an injury so severe that it was close to being amputated. But Mohsin fought back, the tall and skiddy pacer displaying time and again what his body is capable of overcoming.

"He is an incredible athlete," LSG head coach Justin Langer said last month.

And yet the athlete has often been absent – he is still to play a full IPL season, his only first-class game was in 2020, and he averages about eight T20s a year. This season, LSG's season opener was Mohsin's first competitive game since December 2024. Just over a month in, he is their second-highest wicket-taker. His dot-ball percentage (42.2) is currently the fourth-best in the league.

A few months ago, Mohsin was amid a long, tricky and demoralising sequence of recovery. An ACL injury meant no cricket last year. Mohsin was so broken he wasn't sure he could survive this trial. But the hope was still alive for IPL 2026, and LSG refused to let him go.

The latest Mohsin comeback story has several parts, one of which was at the MPS Cricket Academy in Moradabad. Mirza Danish Alam, Mohsin's friend and senior since his U16 days, has been running it for a decade. For the last five years, Mohsin has been coming to the academy on and off. Back on his feet, he landed there again in September and left only before his IPL camp.

"He had no other choice," Alam tells Cricbuzz. "He had to get fit in time. With back-to-back injuries, if he wasn't putting in the hard yards, he could see himself losing out because some new bowler or other keeps coming up. At the academy, he only picked up a ball one month before the IPL."

Alam says that the ACL injury was a complex one, and doctors couldn't get to the root of it at first. Hoping for the right treatment, Mohsin moved around, landing in Bengaluru and Mumbai before a breakthrough came by. "He left no stone unturned," says Alam. "He was hellbent on getting fit."

When Mohsin returned from a Mumbai hospital, with LSG taking care of his surgery, he had put extra weight onto his 6'3 frame and was on medication. The first target was to play the UPT20 League, but he couldn't get fit in time. "The way he was injured, I wasn't sure he would be able to recover quickly," Alam says. "We felt he was getting pushed away from cricket fast. It could take 5-6 months, even a year, to recover completely. Even he was doubtful, saying he wasn't sure if he would be able to survive top-flight cricket."

For three months, Mohsin did not pick up a ball at the academy, only doing ground training and following the exercises provided by the LSG trainers. Over time, Alam saw the weight drop. Videos shared by the academy show Mohsin sprinting from cone to cone in an LSG tee, slowly building up his pace and stamina.

Each day, Mohsin would spend about two hours, turning up in the evenings to beat the heat, but also to stay habituated to the IPL-like conditions under the academy's floodlights. "During the injury, he had put on weight, but he became completely lean after the training kicked in," says Alam. "You could see it in his body language."

When Mohsin eventually started to bowl, he began with three-over spells, gradually going up to six or seven overs in one go. The race was on, but he was giving it his all – as Alam found out when he faced him. "A couple of bouncers that went past me were so fast… I told him: 'You feel even quicker than before!' You could see how fresh he was."

Just when his baby steps had turned into fuller sprints, Mohsin was hit hard by a deeply personal setback. In February, his mother passed away. "Mentally, he was already quite broken and recovering," Alam says. "His mother's death was a huge setback. He was really close to her."

Mohsin would later say that through his darkest times of rehab, it was his mother who always supported him. The trauma of her loss pushed him backwards, but it couldn't shatter him completely. "When a man breaks, he rebuilds too. Mohsin really rebuilt from there," reckons Alam.

Along the way, Mohsin's rebuild would take inspiration from Mohammed Shami, his senior at LSG and a longtime mentor. Shami, Mohsin and Alam go a long way back, having travelled to Bengal years ago to play local tournaments. As Shami grew in stature, he became a guiding light for Mohsin.

That Shami hasn't played for India over the last year proved to be a blessing for Mohsin. At his farmhouse in Amroha, close to Moradabad, Shami extended his personal training facility to Mohsin: a place equipped with wickets, gym and a proper setup for running. It proved to be a soft landing for a player with no cricket under his belt for months. Bit by bit, Mohsin reconstructed his bowling.

Shami had opened the doors of his farmhouse to a select group during Covid-19, when academies and grounds were all shut down, including Alam and Mohsin. But this time, Mohsin benefited from undivided access to the India great for his most challenging comeback. Alam feels that Shami's mentality wove into Mohsin's head: "The kind of ups and downs Shami has faced, I'm not sure who else has," says Alam. "And every time he faced a setback, Shami came back stronger to play for India or in the IPL. He is mentally very, very strong. I don't know what they said directly, but the effect rubbed off on Mohsin."

Meanwhile, the LSG support group has been firmly behind Mohsin, despite having little evidence of any recent form. Heading the bowling group is pace coach Bharat Arun, who organised a pre-season camp at the Coaching Beyond Academy in Chennai that he established alongside Ravi Shastri and R Sridhar. In early February, Arun called up five quicks: Mohsin, Avesh Khan, Mayak Yadav, Naman Tiwari and Akash Singh for an advanced camp over a few days. The final touches of Mohsin's preparation were added there.

Speaking to Cricbuzz, G Jayakumar, the academy's lead coach, says that by the time Mohsin came, any fear of injury was behind him. "It was amazing the way he was bowling here, developing from one session to the next, because there was always a one-day gap in between. The kind of movement, length and accuracy he was bringing in. He was shaping up beautifully. He was 100% committed."

Menon adds that Arun's role in shaping Mohsin has been immense, teaching him about different bowling areas for different phases. Simultaneously, LSG's physios and trainers took care of the fast bowler to prevent a relapse. "I have not seen anyone give the kind of inputs Arun sir gives, to any bowler, studying their action to tell what suits them at what length, line and pattern," says Menon. "The depth of knowledge is at a different level."

As Alam points out, Mohsin is aware that his biggest nemesis is his own fitness. "He's a deadly bowler: it's not easy to pick his cutters, he bowls at 140-145, and he understands batters. He knows that injury is his only problem. Otherwise, he knows he doesn't have any problems with pace and variations.

"If he plays the full IPL season, he can play for India the same year," Alam adds. "All of us well-wishers want him to stay fit for long. (If not for injuries) he could have played for India by now."

From the lonely runs at the academy to the ringing cheers at every IPL wicket, Mohsin won the first bout. Broken and rebuilt, he is back in his quest for the ultimate dream.