Where there are fast bowlers, there will be injuries. No matter how physically gifted one may be, fast bowling exacts such a toll on one’s body that it breaks up at one point or another. While some, like Mohammed Shami, have issues at the backend of their careers, others, like Mayank Yadav, suffer from the start.
The speedster from Delhi has already had his fair share of injuries. Despite playing competitive cricket since December 2021, Mayank has played just 40 matches. Jasprit Bumrah, another injury-prone cricketer, has played 18 matches this year alone.
How to manage Mayank Yadav
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has managed to keep Bumrah ready for international cricket for the most part. But what must they do for players like Mayank? Former New Zealand pacer and Rajasthan Royals (RR) bowling coach, Shane Bond, has given his two bits on how to manage young pacers.
Bond has suffered from injuries. In an international career spanning 9 years, he could play just 120 matches. He knows the challenges of being a 150-click pacer and also realises what not to do.
“The biggest thing you’ve got to remember when you’re going through 18 to 24 is that your body’s still growing. Your bones are still growing — all that sort of stuff. So what’s the tendency? If you get someone who’s exciting and bowls fast, you just want to play them all the time. And the reality is, if you do that, they’re going to break.
So management and how you manage those bowlers is really important. And I think that’s the thing — going, okay, are we prepared to rest this player, give them some time to condition, and actually not play them in every game? Because they’re going to break,” Bond told the Times of India.
Follow CA’s Pat Cummins’ way.
So, what should BCCI do to ensure Mayank and other bowlers like him have successful careers? Bond says workload management and proper planning. He cited Pat Cummins as an example. Cricket Australia knew what an asset he could be; that’s why they ensured he came back to cricket when he was ready.
That meant holding him back from Test cricket. He played a few white-ball matches but only made his red-ball comeback after 6 years. They built his body, and when it was ready, Cummins returned as ready as he ever could be. Bond thinks you have adopted a similar approach to ensure players like Mayank serve Indian cricket.
“And I think you look at a guy like Pat Cummins—he missed five years. When they brought him back, they brought him back through one-day cricket. He’d grown bigger, stronger. They eased him back in. And then he’s had this incredible career that people sort of forget, included those five years he missed.
So I think it’s a combination. Some people have more durability than others — that’s just natural. I think sometimes the management has just got to get a little bit better. When players get fit, there’s one thing — being fit for cricket — but sometimes players, especially good players, get fit, and you just throw them straight back into top-level cricket. You don’t give them the chance to ease through club cricket or second-level cricket — just to get some time and overs under the body and create a bit more durability. There’s a tendency to rush those players back, and as soon as you rush someone back and the intensity goes up, the risk of injury goes up,” he added.
