Premier Cricket’s Baxter Holt back better than ever for Sydney Thunder in BBL

For years, getting through a day of cricket was impossible without either painkillers or an injection. Now this young star is pain free and playing the best he ever has.

Baxter Holt plays a reverse sweep during a Big Bash League match back in January 2019.

Last year Baxter Holt couldn’t bend over far enough to tie up his shoe laces.

At night he could only sleep for 45 minutes before pain woke him when he turned.

To play cricket he had to have cortisone injections or painkillers.

“I couldn’t sleep well at all, I couldn't bend over, I had constant pain down my leg,’’ said Holt, who plays for Eastern Suburbs and will be with Sydney Thunder for the upcoming BBL.

“Two and a half three years ago I was in Brisbane and tore my left hamstring four times in a year. That was when I found out I had a bulging disc pressing on my nerve which wasn’t pleasant.

Sydney Thunder youngster Baxter Holt on the comeback from a nasty back injury. Pic: Supplied

“I played on for another 18 months but no amount of pain killers could mask the pain.

“Apparently all the muscles had seized up to protect my back. I had to take four months off.’’

Ready to undergo surgery, Cricket Australia asked the Carlingford right- handed wicket-keeper-batsman to ring a back specialist in Perth.

“We discussed it and he realised the muscle was causing me the most grief,’’ said the former The King’s School, Parramatta, student.

“When I was getting up from a crouch I was using my back for power and not my legs.’’

Baxter Holt batting for his NSW Premier Cricket club Eastern Suburbs back in 2018

Baxter then had to re-teach himself to move and how to walk and importantly, how to stand up from a squash and relax the muscles in his back.

“It’s an incredible feeling when you wake up without pain,’’ said Holt, who made his Premier Cricket debut with Northern Districts Cricket Club in 2017 when just 17.

“I’m pain free. I haven’t taken a pain killer since January. I was taking five or six a day to get through a day.’’

Now the 21-year-old is fighting fit and ready to resume his career at the elite level.

“This is the strongest and best I have ever felt … now I don’t worry about my back,’’ he said.

Baxter Holt will be back in Thunder colours this season.

Holt said his injury struggle has taught him to take every opportunity presented with two hands.

Holt made his first class debut for NSW against Tasmania in 2019, taking nine catches including a record six in the one innings.

Thunder this month signed him to a one-year-deal to play in summer’s KFC Big Bash which kicks off in December.

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Originally published as Premier Cricket’s Baxter Holt back better than ever for Sydney Thunder in BBL