In the ongoing ICC tournament, Champions Trophy 2025, a lot of the “Champions” are missing as they have been ruled out due to some or the other injury. Injuries are part and parcel of the game and are evitable to some extent. When the body gets through rigorous training for prolonged time, injuries tend to occur. But, with precautionary measures and discipline, one can extend the length of their career by avoiding them. 

Today, in this article by ZAP cricket we discuss major causes of injury and basic steps that can be inculcated to avoid them. 

Causes of injuries and how can they be avoided 

Overloaded workload

With eagerness to excel and to become the best, players these days tend to exert their body by practicing for hours and hours. Eventually, with overloaded workload, small niggles turn into prolonged injuries. For instance, say a lot of young bowlers these days complain about back pain and shoulder pain. One of the major reasons for this is that they do not respect their body’s limits and resultantly it turns into prolonged injuries. 

This can be avoided by following a balanced program created scientifically by an expert. It’s not wise to follow any coach blindly and hence a regime should be created where equal importance is given to work and rest. By following this, one can avoid a lot of injuries that they might have to face in later part of their career. 

Improper warm up and cool down

Warm ups and cool downs are boring and nowadays we see a lot of players skipping it and directly joining the skill session, that is, without prior stretching, running etc. Such players might pull out 2-3 sessions successfully but it’s hard for them to sustain in the long run, since they themselves are inviting injuries. To make you understand better, following are the points that will helped you understand state the perks of warm up and cool down. 

Benefits of warming up 

• Loosens joint and improves blood flow
• Reduces the risk of muscle tear, rips etc.
• Reduces the force on joints from sudden movements 
• Improves balance and coordination 
• Increases flexibility and range of muscles 
• Increases body temperature 
• Minimises stress on heart
• Increases efficiency and ground movements 

Benefits of cooling down

• Reduces muscle soreness 
• Improves flexibility 
• Increases blood flow
• Improves mental state 

Hence, It’s essential not to demean the importance of warming up and cooling down. It holds equal importance as the skill does. It is highly recommended that players should follow a routine in their warm up and cool down which shall include jogging, running drills, active stretching, passive stretching etc. 

Improper gears 

Sometimes improper gears also make a player injured. For instance, we often see players not wearing thigh guards while batting or not fielding with fielding gloves in their practice sessions. These small things can sometimes result in massive injuries. Hence, players should invest well in their gears so that they stay injury free and play undisrupted cricket all the time. 

Imbalanced regime- lack of training 

Just like overtraining invites injuries, lack of training does that too. A lot of muscle and joint related injuries occur due to insufficient strength in major/minor muscles. Thus, giving importance to training and diligently following it can reduce the risk of injury. Balanced strength in all major and minor muscles not only improves performance on the field, but also, eliminates the causes of injury. Players should follow a training schedule under right guidance to stay injury free. 

Improper nutrition 

Nutrition plays a massive role in performance and its importance is highly underrated by players these days. Nutrition helps in nurturing the body as it helps in providing energy and recovering the body. Hence, taking the right amounts of macro and micro nutrients can be helpful. One can see a direct impact of diet on recovery. The more balanced and scientific meals you have, the better your body responds. The results are not a one day thing, it requires constant monitoring and discipline for one to gain benefits of a balanced diet. High protein diets can help a lot in recovery which eventually will help in reduced muscle soreness. 

Lack of focus on recovery 

Through ice baths, massages, hot water baths etc. one can focus on recovery and reduce the chances of injury to a great extent. These methods reduce the tension on muscles, thus ensuring better flow of blood. Without taking adequate measures to recover, muscles will tend to get sore. Hence, to perform at peak levels, one has to focus on recovery as well, just like they do on their primary skill!