Breaking down fast bowlers' break down

The second you pick a cricket ball and decide to become a fast bowler, you knowingly sign up for a journey that will see you spend a reasonable amount of time and money on hospitals and rehab centres. 

Imagine a genuine quick running in at full speed before landing on their front foot to deliver a ball down to the other end.

Many strength and conditioning coaches and biomechanical experts compare this movement to a minor car crash, as fast bowling can have similar effects on the body. 

"Fast bowling is a very unnatural motion," former Indian team's strength and conditioning coach Ramji Srinivasan tells DHoS. "It is about creating momentum, acceleration, braking and deceleration. It is not a standard human movement, something the body is not designed to perform on a daily basis.” 

When bowling a single delivery can have a such a heavy toll on the body, imagine doing it over the course of a game, a season and a career! Most elite sport movements are not great for the body and fast bowling may seem like encashing cheques on something that's not designed for it. The injuries, therefore, are inevitable. 

During the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test in Sydney earlier in the year, India’s pace ace Jasprit Bumrah suffered a back injury. What was reported as a back spasm then turned into a stress-related injury, which forced him out of the game for quite some time. 

An extended rehab delayed Mayank Yadav’s highly anticipated IPL return in April, and when he did come back, he managed to play two games before a back injury ruled him out. 

Major cracks also appeared for Australia after losing skipper Pat Cummins for the first two Ashes Tests due to a recurring back issue. And in Josh Hazlewood’s case, it was one step forward, two steps back; after he made positive strides in his return from a hamstring injury, he has now complained of Achilles soreness that also troubled him during last IPL season. 

The question thus arises: Despite so many advances in sports medicine, why do fast bowlers continue to break down so often? 

“Players are still breaking down and will continue to do so in the future, despite advances in science,” former Indian cricket team physiotherapist and current Punjab Kings consultant Andrew Leipus says. 

“There is a lot more that we know about injuries, risk factors and screening for them these days but workload is one of the main issues at the senior level.”

Injuries are a part and parcel at both senior and junior levels, but how exactly are they caused? 

Fast bowling is a motion that exerts strain, pushing the force absorbed from the ground up the body chain through the calf, hamstring, glutes and the back. And various injuries result from several factors. 

“The main reasons for injuries are wrong biomechanical movements and bowling techniques. The other reasons are a lack of strength and conditioning in the core muscle groups that initiate the (bowling) movement and also break it,” says Srinivasan. 

“You have a muscle that accelerates, a muscle that stabilises and a muscle that decelerates. All three of these aspects have to work in tandem. If you observe, bowlers who are around the 120-130 mark will not have any major issues. So anybody bowling at over 135 to 140, or beyond 140 clicks, that’s where most of them break down,” he adds. 

While also touching on the frequency with which fast bowlers are breaking down, Srinivasan highlights that accelerating the return process can sometimes do more harm than good. 

“Everyone wants to gain rhythm back too soon. So hurrying through things does not help. Playing one format and jumping into the next quickly does not help either. There needs to be progression over time because energy systems for different formats differ. 

“The body has to be adaptable. So, for that, time is a factor. A bowler is not rushed into play but there are possibilities. And the most essential thing is progression in their bowling load.”

The braced front leg is a common trait among fast bowlers, allowing momentum to be directed from the run-up to ball release. However, it comes at a price of further amplifying the stress on the lower back. When asked about the load, Leipus said that no one bowling action stands out and technique is about individuality. 

“There are two types of pace bowlers - one who locks his front knee and the other who lets that front leg collapse. So the one who collapses the front leg attenuates or dissipates some of those ground reaction forces through the musculoskeletal system (combining the skeletal system with the muscular one).

"Those that keep that front leg extended have to brace and dissipate those forces in other ways and that’s generally through the hip, spine and trunk follow-through. There’s no consensus on the best action because technique is individual and both can produce quite a lot of pace.”

As with any other problem, the risk of injury can be reduced by handling it appropriately. However, the process starts from the junior level or when the athlete’s body is not fully mature in terms of strength. 

“A fast bowler needs to be assessed and analysed over time," says Srinivasan. "When an athlete is in the 14-16 or 14-18 age group, there is a growth spurt. If you can identify the issues then and there, many problems can be solved in the later stages. Injury prevention is a process involved in the initial stages that can prevent issues in the long run. Something similar to an LTAD (long-term athlete development) programme,” he explains. 

When asked how an athlete’s injury can be prevented from a physio’s point of view, Leipus shared similar sentiments while pointing out that force on the body can be more than eight times the body weight.     

“Junior cricket has somewhat different biological factors. It's the Holy Grail to predict and prevent injuries. Sometimes the loads (force on the body) can be more than this (eight times the body weight), depending on the bowler and their action but it’s difficult to change this at the senior level because that pattern of movement is well developed.”

Having said that, at the senior level, while injuries are challenging to be completely prevented, they can be managed, but there is no one way to do it. 

“Every fast bowler is different, like a thumb impression. You have to work on each individual, with respect to their own conditioning, their balance and dynamic stability, function stability and strength, aerobic fitness, among others. And their workloads will have to be a team process. From the bowler, coach, S&C, physio, etc, so protecting a bowler is a collective effort,” Srinivasan said. 

“You can also address footwear, biomechanics and other factors such as fatigue and recovery, both between bowling spells and between sessions and days. And depending on the data, bowlers can be managed more effectively,” added Leipus. 

Pace comes at a price. An injury to a fast bowler is not an accident; it is what he/she signs up for.