With Women’s ODI World Cup Looming, India Grapples With Fast-bowling Injury Crisis

With Women’s ODI World Cup looming, India grapples with fast-bowling injury crisis (Image Source: IANS)

With Renuka Singh Thakur: As India builds toward a critical Women’s ODI World Cup campaign on home soil, a troubling pattern has caught everyone’s attention: the conspicuous absence of its frontline fast bowlers from recent assignments in Sri Lanka and England.

With Renuka Singh Thakur, Pooja Vastrakar, and Titas Sadhu sidelined after injuries post the 2025 Women’s Premier League (WPL), India fielded an inexperienced pace attack that raised eyebrows. Though India won the ODI tri-series in Sri Lanka and secured ODI and T20I series wins in England, the absence of frontline pacers in run-up to the ODI World Cup in concerning – though Kranti Goud, Amanjot Kaur and Arundhati Reddy managed things admirably.

While Titas has been named in India 'A' squad for the upcoming Australia tour in August, uncertainty looms over Renuka and Pooja, with the latter undergoing shoulder surgery three months ago. These recurring breakdowns prompt deeper inquiry: is there a systemic issue in how India manages its women fast bowlers? The injuries may differ in nature, but the pattern reflects broader concerns around the spike in match volumes post Covid-19.

"A fast bowler would play 10-15 matches in a year, but now they are probably touching 35-40 or even 50 games in a year. There are multiple camps happening, including the national camps. States have started doing a lot of camps, and that means bowling has increased. Also, there are a lot of WPL camps and doing their personal practice. So, overall, the fast bowlers are bowling far more than what they would do say three years back," said a source aware of the developments to IANS.

A closer look at the calendar backs this claim. In 2018/19, a senior domestic cricketer playing T20 and 50-over competitions would play six or seven league matches and five more games if her team reached the final. With challenger trophies, a player would feature in three respective games of 50-over and 20-over events.

In contrast, the 2024/25 domestic season saw a player take part in six or seven league matches in each white-ball format, and four knockout games. Add to it, five games in each white-ball challenger tournament and three multi-day matches. For U23, U19, and U15 players, nine games (five league matches and four knockout games) were possible.

Internationally, as per Cricket-21 database, India played 37 matches in 2018, 27 games in 2019, and 22 games in 2021 post a Covid-19 affected 2020, which had 10 matches. That rose sharply to 43 games in 2022, before coming down to 26 and 37 matches in 2023 and 2024 respectively. In 2025, the count already stands at 16.

The injury timeline mirrors this toll. Renuka suffered a back stress injury post-WPL 2023 and returned in December 2024 with reduced pace—dropping from 110-120 kmph to 90-100 kmph. Titas was sidelined with a back injury after the May 2024 Bangladesh tour, returned in December, and then faced another back issue post-WPL 2025 but is now fit for the ‘A’ tour.

Pooja last played at the 2024 T20 World Cup before undergoing a shoulder surgery. Fellow seam-bowling all-rounder Kashvee Gautam, a breakout star from WPL 2025, debuted in Sri Lanka but was soon ruled out with a leg injury.

“An under 15 player will play U15, U19, U23 and possibly senior tournaments, as many of them don't clash and there are a lot of matches to play. So the generation of players till U23 - they play all but two tournaments. But the U19 and U15 players, they play four age groups tournaments each and that is extra load to start with.”

“The number of matches have increased per player, but the fitness level of every player has not increased to meet the requirements. I mean, how can you have four-five-six fast bowlers injured and that too for the second time?” said an official privy to the developments to IANS.

One key issue that has been talked about is the disparity in intensity between domestic and international cricket. “When you step up onto the international stage, the player has to be ready to be able to take that load of higher intensities of game. So, they cannot expect domestic-like intensity at an international level. When there is that change in the intensity, the body will take some time to recover from it – that’s number one.

“Number two is too much too soon. A lot of players would want to return to competitive cricket as soon as possible, which is absolutely understandable from an athlete's point of view. But sometimes the body does not heal as per our liking. Some take a little longer, while some take shorter time, as multifactorial things are behind - it can be hormonal or just the way the bones are made.”

“You can't pinpoint one reason for it. So, the players will have to have good amount of preparation. After an injury, during the rehab and while getting back to the sport, they need to consistently be able to practice, train, practice at the intensities of the international cricket, which is very important,” said Neha Karnik, former physiotherapist of the India women's team, to IANS.

There’s also the mounting psychological pressure on fast bowlers graduate to the senior and international level. Neha also pointed out how fast bowlers’ bodies need proper rest and recovery, making proper periodisation - structuring training, skill work, recovery, and nutrition - very essential.

Under this, every aspect has to be carefully planned and aligned with the demands of a season. It can't be random — like bowling 10 overs one day, another 10 overs to bowl the following day, then taking two weeks off, only to suddenly push for 20 overs again. This kind of inconsistent approach doesn’t support long-term development or performance.

“So, even these spike in workload - suddenly doing some activity, and then having a longer break of couple of weeks of not doing anything is also a dangerous concoction. That also leads to a lot of players not having consistency in skill, or fitness. It’s like do little but consistently - that is the thing, rather than doing tons of things at once, then not doing anything and breaking down and then again doing loads of things again.

“So, lack of consistency, poor fitness planning and skill sessions also puts athletes at a much bigger risk of overuse injuries. Hence, the players probably become very competitive, and instead of building a stronger foundation, giving their body and mind time to adapt to the skill, they just want to perform, and get ahead of others. This is where they start breaking down,” added Neha, who served as the physiotherapist of 2025 U19 Women’s T20 World Cup winning Indian team.

Another rising issue is RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sports), a low-energy condition driven by physical and psychological factors. With the rise of social media usage, players are increasingly exposed to a flood of fitness advice, much of it is misleading and puts them on the pursuit of achieving a particular body image.

“Now what happens is when the players see a certain kind of misinformation, they wouldn't know it's wrong or right. Many of them are teenagers, so it happens, and they would want to look a certain way. So they will get into crash diets or stop having meals because they want to lose a little bit of fat and that too quickly.

“But they end up actually compromising on their nutrition, which puts them at a very, very high risk of energy availability. They would train too much to get the same results quickly and as a result, they're burning more than what they're actually consuming,” added Neha.

With women’s fast bowlers more prone to bone and muscle-related injuries, one of the most important signs of someone being diagnosed with RED-S is missing or delayed periods. “We have not seen this in the national team, but at a domestic level, the girls are okay and happy on not getting periods and not doing the math of it. But the other side of it is that it’s doing more harm to your body than anything good.”

“So we try to encourage and educate them that they should forget about losing quick kgs and body fat. Otherwise, bone stress injuries have already become very, very common. Once there's a bone stress injury, it takes much, much longer time to heal than other injuries,” added Neha.

Going forward, Neha believes collecting injury data at the domestic level could be transformative in preventing recurring injures in female fast bowlers. “Data is everything - if you show players numbers, they will realize it. But if you just give them gyaan, they will not take it because they would want to see and know numbers. So once we have this data, these kind of injuries can be reduced further,” she said.

India’s bench strength in women’s fast bowling is now at a transition point. The talent is undeniable, and the skill set exists to take on and even get the better of top-tier teams like Australia. But without urgent structural reforms in fitness management, injury prevention, and long-term athlete care, India risks losing its most promising fast bowlers to injuries before and during their peak years.

“All fast bowlers have different ways of training in the gym, and loading ways. So there has to be some criteria there that whether you want to take a call now, get the fitness levels right and then proceed further or you just want players to come in and go like that. Like, how come Renuka is getting so much injured all the time?

“That means you are not monitoring something - either her diet, number of overs, and matches she has played. So, there are a lot of loopholes and what happens is after the injury, there is a lot of blame game going on – like so and so person was responsible,” said the source.

The focus, as per the source, must shift from finger-pointing to problem-solving. Instead of engaging in blame games after every injury, the priority should be to identify the root cause and implement measures to prevent recurrence - ensuring that athletes can have long and sustainable careers.

“The ecosystem needs to find a solution for the recurring injuries, because the biggest problem is that you won't have enough players, especially fast bowlers, to play even 11 matches. For that you have to monitor their workload, rest periods, fitness testing, one run mile running numbers, results after undergoing DEXA scans every six months, nutrition patterns and how much sleep they are getting.

The focus, as per the source, must shift from finger-pointing to problem-solving. Instead of engaging in blame games after every injury, the priority should be to identify the root cause and implement measures to prevent recurrence - ensuring that athletes can have long and sustainable careers.

Until that happens, India's most promising fast bowlers may continue to fall—one injury at a time and that could ultimately jeopardise the side’s chances in a crucial ODI World Cup year.

Article Source: IANS