CHENNAI: Madhya Pradesh batter Aniket Verma had a decent maiden IPL season in 2025, scoring 236 runs from 12 innings at a strike rate of 166.19 for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Given his exploits, the franchise retained him and the decision only made the 24-year-old more determined to come back better. With SRH support staff in constant touch with him during the off season, Aniket decided to chisel his body to make himself leaner and fitter. It demanded intense workout regime and strict diet being monitored by his trainer and dietician respectively.
Aniket was ready for the toil as he worked day in and day out to emerge winner ahead of the 2026 season. And it paid dividends when he took the field against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL opener on Saturday. He smashed 43 off just 18 balls slamming four sixes and three fours helping his side cross the 200-run mark, albeit in a losing cause. While Aniket and his franchise apparently will be happy with his new-found fitness, his octogenarian grandmother Parvati Verma is worried a lot fearing the cricketer is starving himself and thus losing weight.
“She is not amused as she feels Aniket is not eating properly and losing weight in the process,” Amit Verma, Aniket’s maternal uncle, told this daily with a chuckle. On a serious note, the uncle said Aniket worked hard to achieve the fitness level. “He was in constant touch with SRH support staff and working as per a schedule. Apart from honing his cricketing skills, he worked tirelessly on his fitness. Then he is strictly following the diet chart. Sometimes even I feel he is not eating properly but that’s what you do when you are a professional athlete,” added the uncle, who is deservingly credited for helping Aniket pursue his dream despite personal and financial crisis.
Sunrisers were 137/4 when Aniket joined his captain Ishan Kishan in the middle. He soon lost Kishan as well but that could not deter him from playing big shots. It was in the penultimate over of the innings bowled by West Indian medium pacer where Aniket showed his range of shots. He first hit the pacer’s slower offcutter over deep backward square leg and followed it up with a four around the deep backward point region. The next ball he deposited behind the sight screen. He was caught at long-off by Virat Kohli, who had dropped him earlier in the innings, off the last ball of the over. At first it looked, Aniket wanted to clear the boundary but couldn’t generate enough power. However, later during the innings break, he clarified that he was just working the ball around for a single. And it says a lot of power he is generating apparently because of fitness.
