CHENNAI: After a hectic last three weeks or so, Andrew Leipus and Adrian Le Roux can finally breathe. As is the norm just before the start of another Indian Premier League (IPL) season, the pair, head sports physiotherapist and the strength and conditioning coach at Punjab Kings, have had to run a battery of tests on the franchise's players.
"The first two weeks are hectic," Leipus says over a Zoom call. "You have got 25 guys who are coming in from various parts of the world with various levels of cricket under their belt. You have to get to know these guys, there is the screening process... it's quite intensive. We have come out of it pretty well."
The screening process Leipus, a support staff of the men's national team over two decades ago, conducts is important for various reasons. "We do a musculoskeletal screening in order to determine if these guys are fit on arrival, if they are fit for selection on arrival. There's a number of physiotherapy-based tests including strength, function and control. We firstly assess if they are coming with any injuries and are fit for selection (upon arrival). If they are not fit for selection, they don't get paid basically. That's just fit to play, not fit to perform. From a physio perspective, there are a number of things one can do — concussion testing, cardiac testing, you don't know where to stop. We cover the basics that we feel are important."
Le Roux does his own body composition testing. He also does a strength screening to look at movement.
That, though, is during the initial weeks. Once games begin, their area of expertise changes to hydration, player education apropos urine, getting eight hours of sleep and so on.
Studying urine samples of players
Punjab Kings, like a lot of franchises in recent times, 'did dabble' in studying the urine deposits of the players but they don't do that anymore. "What we are testing for is not going to make a difference in the time frame of that match," Leipus says. "During Test cricket, perhaps (it's important to look at the specific gravity of the urine). In T20, the game's over in three and a half hours. It's about making sure your urine is clear before the match starts."
Le Roux, whose time with the Indian team overlapped with that of Leipus, chips in during the same Zoom call. "It's all about player education," the South African says. "We spend a lot of time with the players to talk about hydration and sleep. It doesn't really matter what time the players go to sleep but the aim is for eight hours of sleep."
Punjab do not have set hydration protocols in place but "we encourage all players to go to bed fully hydrated, even if it means having to get up to pass urine in the night," Leipus says.
It's kind of important because players tend to lose anywhere between one and three kilos over the four over period during an IPL game. "It depends on an individual," Le Roux, who has worked in the IPL in some capacity during all seasons, says. "We are fortunate that most of our games are evening games. A player might lose, maybe, 1-3 kilos in body weight but that's all water and that will be replaced quite quickly."
Using wellness tech Haaland invests in
Hydration, though, is just one aspect of their roles after matches. "We can't force players to do anything that they don't feel is relevant to them," Leipus says. "A lot of them do ice baths in the dressing room post-matches. When they come back to the hotel, if they have got any niggles, we do something called an icing-compression treatment. We had a couple of players on the normatec (a compression device footballer Erling Haaland swears by so much he decided to become an investor in its parent company)," Leipus says.
Even if some of the younger Punjab players are gently coaxed to avail tech like this, one player who takes care of his body is Shreyas Iyer. "Shreyas was out there for 20 overs (during his innings of 97 against Gujarat) before he fielded," the Australian says. "It's a reflection of how he looks after himself, he hydrates, he does normatec, his physical prep is really good and is committed to nutrition... you don't have to push him. Some of the younger guys need help in this department."
On Tuesday, both Le Roux and Leipus, who have worked in pairs (before Punjab, they were together at Kolkata for over a decade), will get to work again. First, it's to ensure players are hydrated and fit to perform ahead of their match against Chennai at Mullanpur. Minutes after the match, the ice-baths, the customised drinks and other devices are put into place.