Fisher demonstrated his wicket-taking threat by dismissing John Campbell with his second ball in the Test, but this would be his only success in a hard-fought 27 overs on a flat Bridgetown deck. And before he had a chance to expand on his opportunity in the England summer, he succumbed – like many of his fast bowlers – to a stress fracture.
Add to this the list, you could say, Fischer’s career to date has been a bout of dislocations ranging from hamstring and side strains to broken thumbs and shoulder dislocations. And yet, as he prepares for this week’s England Lions tour of Sri Lanka, he is determined not to be discouraged by his misfortune, and is instead keen to showcase the work he has done in rehab over the past year .
“It was sad and really upset for a few days, but I was like ‘what can we do?’, ‘how can we solve this?’ How can I be better next time so that doesn’t happen?” He says “If you improve every single part of your game then hopefully you are giving yourself the best chance of not getting injured. That’s what I’ve tried to do.”
At 25, time is still on Fisher’s side if he is to establish his Test credentials, but it will be a different-sized cricketer to re-emerge in the England shirt in the coming weeks. Notably, he has bulked out, adding 5kg of muscle to a previously willowy frame, with a view to offering a more robust product for selectors to consider in the 2023 season.
“Frankly, looking in a mirror I thought, I don’t look as strong as I’ve looked this winter and maybe that’s something to look at,” says Fischer. “I basically told our S&C [strength and conditioning coach], ‘I want you to show me an Australian fast bowler’, because they all look solid. Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc, they all look very strong.”
“I ate a lot in the first three months,” he adds. “It wasn’t Macy’s [McDonald’s] and things like that, but it was just to get to where you can’t eat anymore, so you can build muscle, and then once you start playing and bowling it tapers off, Which he did.
“Sometimes in our sport we think too much about skin folds, a lot of boys worry about being skinny. But I didn’t care how skinny I was at the time, my goal was Had to build muscle, and that’s the best way to put on some weight and muscle. I was still training a lot at the time so I wasn’t really getting fat.
“Throughout the summer, the Yorkshire coach and some of the players were like ‘bloody hell, you look big’. Around my chest I’m a bit bigger and then my legs are bigger.”
The strong framework of Fisher’s bid for fulfillment is just one element. During his downtime he also tried a technical hack to reduce the inevitable stress on his body that is involved in the act of fast bowling.
“I’ve tried to be a little straighter with my back-foot contact,” he says. “My back foot was coming in a side-on position, which is fine, but my legs were crossing a bit. Now they come down in a straight line and my back foot is more towards fine leg than deep midwicket. Was hinting
“So when he lands it’s a lot more straight, so I lean forward from my hip, leaning on one side of my hip instead of leaning on both hips, and you start to fall into your action.” do and it takes too long.” Stretch the left side of my back, where I got my stress fracture. It’s basically trying to be too straight with my legs and then hopefully when you release it makes you more straight and more on top of the ball. ,
“It was just me looking at my action and thinking that obviously my side flexion is not very good and how can I straighten it more. It was just me looking at my action and Kabir’s comments on that. was working with.” [Ali] and gibbon [Otis Gibson] in Yorkshire.”
“In the first two weeks after my injury, I saw so many different actions from some of the best bowlers to ever bowl,” he says. “I don’t want mine to look like this guy because he’s the fastest or he’s faster, but I want mine to look like Nortje. It’s technically great, but it’s his back-foot contact that I’ve tried to model myself.” But because I thought I wanted to make it appear that way.”
“I love Jimmy and love watching him bowl, but I was so obsessed about being on the side-on to swing it a little bit more, that’s where my legs cross-over came in. It’s really me Was trying to model myself too.” So much for Jimmy that made it worse for me.
“Looking back, I used to swing it without side-on, it was more of my wrists than anything else. It’s something I learned hopefully, if anything, it helped me improve my technical skills.” has literally made me much more aware of my actions.” Which I think is a positive. It’s better to learn that while you’re still young enough.”
For all the positives Fisher has taken from his rehabilitation, 2022 remains a disappointment – not least that he was powerless to prevent Yorkshire’s relegation from the Championship’s top flight after Warwickshire’s thrilling final-day escape. He also had to watch from afar as England’s Test standards rose under the leadership of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, but that experience served as a reminder of how much he deserves the chance to deliver on the promise of his England debut.
“‘You just want to be a part of it because it sounds like so much fun,'” Fisher says while chatting with the Test squad while part of the England Lions’ training camp in Abu Dhabi ahead of Christmas.
“The UAE tour was really good to us, they want us to play the way the England team is playing but they want us to work to our strengths, above all, it’s just giving the players the freedom to go and play. Just to give you the confidence to enjoy it.” And try to put pressure on the team you are playing with.”
There’s no telling how prominent Fischer is in the selectors’ thoughts, although he admits there was some talk about him standing in for Mark Wood in Pakistan last winter until it was decided was that his rehab was not advanced enough. Since then, of course, Jamie Overton – another debutant in 2022 – has suffered a stress fracture of his own, but the returns of Olly Stone, Jofra Archer and Saqib Mahmood add to a promising pool of quick options going into the Ashes summer. gives a hint.
“I can’t really control where I am in the pecking order, so for me it’s just about bowling well and I know how fast it can happen,” says Fisher. at some point.
“In indoor sessions I’m visualizing myself bowling to David Warner, so that’s definitely on my mind. But in terms of that being my target this summer, it’s not like my wall or anything. If It happens, it happens.” For me, it’s just bowling well for Yorkshire and then hopefully I get another chance at some point.”
Andrew Miller is the UK editor for ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket
