The breaking point: Why are Indian fast bowlers getting injured frequently?

Bumrah is an exception since his action has always been injury prone. But in the case of Prasidh Krishna, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed and Umesh Yadav, the story is different.

The recurring injuries to fast bowlers is frustrating, and as former India coach Ravi Shastri rightly pointed out, “In last three-four years, there are quite a few who are permanent residents of the NCA.”

Mohammed Shami’s childhood coach Mohammed Badruddin says the entire strength and conditioning method is not feasible for the pacers.

“My only advice to young pacers is that work on the shape of your seam and swing, not on your body,” Badruddin told The Indian Express. He added, “I don’t understand this fascination of young pacers doing gym session for two hours. What’s the point in that? How is it going to help you become a better bowler? A fast bowler should train outside in the ground, toil hard in the nets, instead of lifting weights.”

“As a coach it has become difficult to make the 16-17 year olds stay away from the gym. All of them are on Instagram, the cricketers post their videos, and photos from the gym session and it sets a wrong precedent among budding cricketers. I always tell the young fast bowlers that the gym can only give shape to your body, but it’s the ground that will give you the stamina.”

Recently, former India opener Virender Sehwag had slammed former India strength and conditioning coach Shanker Basu for making the same programs for all Indian players. Sehwag recalled one of his interactions with R Ashwin, when he was the team mentor of Punjab Kings, “Why should there be the same program for Ravichandran Ashwin and Virat Kohli? When Ashwin was with the Kings XI Punjab, he told me he was doing clean-and-jerk workouts because it was in trend.”

“Athletes train from childhood for clean and jerk and still get injured. Imagine a cricketer starting when he’s over 30 years old.

“This could be Virat Kohli’s funda. But not everyone is Virat Kohli. You need to prepare a training program based on your own body,” he added.

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Former India pacer Karsan Ghavri blames training in the gymnasium as the sole reason behind these recurring injuries.

“All these fast bowlers, they go to the gymnasium, lift those heavy weights and that’s the cause of the injuries. Lifting weights makes your muscles stiff. Then when you are running, a small thing happens, and it tears up,” said Ghavri.

“Cricketing muscles are different. To develop those muscles, you need to make sure that you practice more in the nets. Now everybody has been told not to bowl more than six overs spell in the nets. To me, fast bowlers going to the gym and developing muscles on their shoulders is a slow death,” he added.

Badruddin cites the example of his ward Shami, an old-school pacer who doesn’t believe in gym training.

“He learnt his lessons after his knee surgery. Now what he does is light training in the gym. Now he is bowling like someone who is 24. He is fitter than ever,” said Badruddin.

Badruddin shared an exciting training routine of his ward. He said: “He ploughed the field with a tractor, and when feet used to sink one foot under, he used to run.”

Badruddin explained why Shami’s desi method of training is so effective: “That run strengthens your legs. Before the last year’s IPL, Mohsin also trained with Shami and he told me later sir, ‘I can feel the difference in my run-up’. That’s the amount of hard work Shami puts in. A fast bowler should never spend more time in the gym.”

Badruddin feels Mohsin is not even doing the 10 per cent of the work Shami has done, but he feels after this year’s IPL, the left-arm pacer has understood that only good fitness can give him longevity.

“Last year, he was clocking 150. He got injured and had surgery done on his shoulder. This year, he was not the same bowler. He has lost pace; you can clearly see he was overweight and was not ready.

“After Lucknow Super Giants got eliminated, the next day, he came to Amroha. He is spending less time in the gym and more on the ground,” laughs Badruddin.

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The decline of Irfan Pathan will always remain a puzzle for Indian cricket. The fans and a few former cricketers blamed Greg Chappell for his sudden downfall.

However, Ghavri thinks otherwise. He said: “When Irfan burst onto the scene, his action was natural and it was a beautiful bowling action with lovely swing. He was advised by people that he should train in the gym, and he started doing that. He developed the muscles on his shoulder and his left arm was not lifting at all. Later on, he became a round-arm bowler.”

In the current crop of Indian pacers, Nagarkotti, who burst into the scene during India’s U-19 World Cup triumph in 2018 has caught everyone’s attention with his pace. He was consistently clocking 145 kmph, but has hardly played since then. The pacer has played only three first-class games, 22 List A and 25 T20 matches in five years.

In the 2022-23 domestic season, he finally trained and represented Rajasthan in all formats but his back injury recurred during the IPL and is currently waiting for his scans at NCA.

“He has spent more days at the NCA than on the ground. It has been a frustrating five years for both of us. The back-to-back injuries are a puzzle to me,” said Nagarkoti’s coach Surender Singh Rathore.

Rathore blames the IPL window for the injuries to the pacers. “The young Indian pacers come to the tournament after a long and regressing domestic season. Straightaway, they join the franchise and then they do the pre-tournament training, plays practice matches. Shorter the format the more it takes the toll on the pacers body,” said Rathore.

Navdeep Saini. (File)

Rathore said that with the amount of cricket played, there is no off-season and he hinted that Nagarkoti might quit one of the formats to extend his career.

“There is no off-season now. With the amount of cricket is played now, we might see pacers pick and choose the formats. BCCI should specify the workload management to the Indian pacers. They should be told that we only need you for white-ball or red ball and they must train accordingly. Now it is difficult for a fast bowler to play all the three formats,” he said.

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In an interaction during the IPL, former India pacer Zaheer Khan, was perplexed about the recurring injuries to Indian pacers.

“I am puzzled that bowlers are getting injured. I believe something needs to be looked at carefully in terms of how they’re approaching the whole season or their training-to-rest and recovery ratio. It is very difficult to pin-point in one word what’s exactly going wrong,” said Zaheer.

Ramji Srinivasan, who was associated with the Indian team as a strength and conditioning coach for nearly a decade, believes that a bowling coach should play a bigger role in deciding the sort of training a fast bowler needs in the gym.”The type of strength fitness needed for a fast bowler is totally different from a batsman. As far gyming is concerned, strength is one component of fitness for a fast bowler. It is not the end of the world if they don’t do strength exercises. If you don’t pick the ideal strength exercises that are needed for your body, it can lead to injuries. The choice of exercise has to be pertinent to a fast bowler and according to the bowling action, in tandem with the tempo, recovery in between matches, and the load that is required during off-season, pre-season and during the season. If you bulk up too much, your mechanism changes, the movement of your body changes. You have too be phenomenally strong and lift 100kg, but it won’t transform into your bowling,” Ramji said.

Umesh Yadav (File)

While some fast bowlers still do laps, Ramji believes, it alone won’t help them get stronger. For a sport that is generally considered a stop and go (explosive), Ramji believes one needs to identify the threshold zone. “You have to find the threshold point between anaerobic and aerobic, which gives you maximum efficiency and that is where the 2k run comes in. Aerobic exercises are important because fast bowling is all about rhythm. To develop a good rhythm, you need to have a proper breathing pattern and you can do that only with proper running mechanism. Everytime you take a stride, you inhale, exhale. There are many ways to develop strength, lifting huge weights is not the only way. For a fast bowler it should be 60 per cent aerobics, 30 per cent strength and 10 per cent will make the rest. A fast bowler should have personalised program depending on his action. Not even seam-bowling all-rounders like Hardik Pandya or Vijay Shankar should follow the same program because they are also batsmen and they should have a separate program,” Ramji added.

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Ghavri, who used to run the fast bowler camp at IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali, believes the BCCI must restart those camps again.

“BCCI used to organise fast bowlers camps, batsman camps, spinners camps, wicket-keeper camps. Now all these camps have been shut down. I don’t know how NCA functions now but the specialized coaching was very good. It gave Indian cricket depth in all the departments. They must start it again,” he said.