Kolkata: In a skill-based sport like cricket, fitness once conformed to the seasonal calendar and hence, needed off-season, pre-season and pre-competition camps.
But as the sport grew, fitness was viewed through a holistic lens that caters to power, endurance, agility, flexibility and reaction time of cricketers on an individual basis. And since everyone has different physical thresholds, the need to monitor and manage their fitness has become a year-round practice. Which is why the concept of training in the off-season – a window India rarely get these days – has undergone several makeovers in the last three decades.
The ideal pre-season used to be a six to eight-week window, a phase where cricketers could afford to ramp down and up again. But now that window barely stretches a month. This time, for example, India are getting just four weeks between the Test tour of England and the Asia Cup that will be played in the T20 format.
Playing two different formats in the space of a month may seem a fairly easy transition to the casual observer but it involves tough recalibrations, says John Gloster, a renowned strength and conditioning expert who has worked with senior national teams of India, Bangladesh as well as the Rajasthan Royals franchise.
“The intensity of the T20 game is so high that it mimics the physical exertions of an ODI,” Gloster told HT. “But the players today have access to better technology, better training and a better understanding of their workload. So, I think they’re a better protected athlete, and therefore a better prepared athlete than they were, you know, back when we didn’t have so much data.”
Data can only do so much though. Bridging the gap between the end and start of two seasons requires a much more nuanced effort. “The biggest danger is when you jump from red ball to white ball and back to red ball, and not being conditioned appropriately for the demands of each of those formats. That’s when the risk outweighs things,” said Gloster.
“If you’re looking at, say, a fast bowler, there’s actually more damage to them if you don’t maintain some level of bowling activity during the layover periods. So, the idea and the best way to protect these athletes and make them more resilient is to actually keep them doing some level of bowling activity during that rest and recovery period.”
Gloster calls this an ‘active rest’ period, where cricketers are resting from anything that may aggravate the workload, but still maintaining some level of activity to keep them resilient and protected. “That’s where it’s changed. We now have a greater understanding of load management or work management in order to protect them from injury,” he said. “The old sort of understanding of a complete break can actually be damaging because what you then need to do is you then need to extend your credit and return to bowling, return to load, return to activity period.
“Now, that’s okay if you’ve got six or eight weeks, because that’s how long it takes. If they’ve had a complete break for more than four weeks, they then need a four to six-week block in order to return to an acceptable level of load that’s going to protect them. So, no load and then load is very dangerous. Too much load is very dangerous, and then spikes of load are also dangerous.”
This is where the workload of Jasprit Bumrah comes under the scanner. Bumrah is a special bowler who has had breakdowns, major surgeries and has spent months in rehab. Ideally, India would like him to lead the Test bowling as well as the T20 bowling, be fit for the IPL, the T20 World Cup and then the ODI World Cup.
That also means different workloads switching different formats, all in the span of a few months, but with a rider. “There’s a 30% difference in high-speed running efforts in white ball cricket than there is in red ball cricket,” said Gloster. “So, if you haven’t done the high-speed running preparation during the Test series before you enter a T20 competition, then your risk of tearing a muscle, soft tissue injury is very, very high.”
Which is why Gloster feels the role of Adrian Le Roux, India’s current strength and conditioning coach is so important. “Having one eye on the forward calendar is very important,” he said. “Adrian will have one eye on what they’ve done, respecting their workloads from that and whether they need to be rested or not, or reconditioned, and another eye on what format of cricket they are going into.”
More workload management than pre-season training really, which doesn’t necessarily have to be viewed negatively considering the amount of cricket India play throughout the year. The smart players and smart organisations are using data more effectively now to accurately understand what the exertions are on the field, and then replicating that in the training environment, something Gloster feels India are doing better now with their fast bowlers.
The burnout is real though. And since the strength and conditioning unit maintains a daily check of the workload of players, Gloster sees no reason why they shouldn’t be consulted ahead of selection meetings. “Whether it’s Jasprit Brummer or Prasidh Krishna or whoever, the same consideration and the same process goes into selecting any player in any squad,” he said. “You weigh up their risk profile, and then you factor that into what format is coming up, because the greatest risk is if you’re underprepared for the format that they’re going into.”