Roderick happy in the slow lane
TAKING it one game at a time is sport’s most common cliché, but for Gareth Roderick it has been a way to get over an illness that caused him to lose weight and miss half of the season.
The Gloucestershire captain made his first-team return in the Championship this week, scoring 96 against Nottinghamshire before taking a couple of catches behind the stumps in the draw.
It’s been a tough campaign for the 25-year-old, with one aborted 2nd XI return setting him back a further month, but now physically and mentally refreshed after what the county are simply describing as “an illness”, he is back in love with the sport.
He said: “It was frustrating because you want to get back as soon as possible, and it was one of those situations of taking one step forwards and two steps back.
“I tried to come back a bit too early and wasn’t quite ready. That delayed the whole process another month or so.
“I was getting quite frustrated that I couldn’t do what I wanted to do in a short space of time.
“Physically I’m all right, I came back from South Africa (this winter) the fittest I have been, but then this illness came and I dropped a lot of weight.
“So a lot of the process of getting back was getting the weight back on because I lost it quite rapidly.
“With that comes the lack of energy and concentrating for large periods of time is tough.
“That’s where you take it day by day, first just having a ten-minute bat, then the following week a 15 or 20-minute bat, so you just build it up.
“The intensity of my training slowly went up each day and each week until I got to a point where I felt I could play a whole day of cricket and I did that and got through it okay.” While Phil Mustard has continued as skipper to relieve the burden on Roderick, he has taken back wicketkeeping duties – something that he has relished. And with a trip to Hove to take on Sussex next up, a revitalised Roderick will have the chance to build on that impressive first outing of the season.
He said:“I’ve pretty much (put the weight back) barring a few kilos, I’ve been fully partaking in everything in the last few weeks.
“It’s just good to be back, when you’re missing training you feel a bit left out and that you should be there with the boys and you’re not.
“I’m enjoying cricket again, loving cricket again, because I didn’t play it for quite a period but I’m taking it game by game, ball by ball.”