Cricket is a game of fitness, and it demands you to stay in your prime day in and day out regularly for back-to-back matches. Fitness is demanded when you have to take flights in between cities across many continents and then which almost makes you forget about your daily routine and diet.
During the lockdown period, players and fans were not getting their desired exercise. Apart from abandoning their favorite games, all the fun of cricket they had was possible through mobile gaming. Fantasy cricket became the top game during the lockdown, and people crammed all over the internet to play the game. To play fantasy cricket, you had to download an app from official websites or app stores.
Let’s check out some perfect exercises that will help you figure out what athletes do in the gym or on the field to keep themselves fit and agile for their cricket matches.
Squats
 Like football, legs play a very crucial role in cricket. You must have a good functioning lower body so that your bowling stance, batting posture, and fielding are intact at most stages. Players must stand with a definite space between their legs to squat and keep their vision straight ahead. Once in this position, they must slowly lower their upper body by bending their knees but keeping their back straight. The lower the player can sit, the better; once they have reached a point, they have to stand up to their initial position again by not moving so that the impact is in their thigh muscles and calves.
Chin Up
 It is the primary form of back exercise but is quite challenging to do in the initial period. The athlete has to grab a bar above the head and then pull up along the lines until the chin has reached a position above the bar. This is a challenging exercise if you are bulky and require immense shoulder strength to pull up the body’s entire weight. This is crucial for batsmen as they can hit more shots further from their range and use a more effective strength in the desired direction. This exercise is also helpful for bowlers as it increases their power to throw the ball, especially for pacers.
Medicine Ball Throws
For cricket, core strength is more important than other attributes. This specific exercise perfectly ticks all the right boxes and makes you put power into your hips so that you can properly channel them through your extremities on the cricket ground. To perform this action, you must take a light ball and throw it at full speed into a wall or towards your partner. The best advice is to use a partner instead of a wall to keep it going back and forth, making it a more lucrative and time-saving version of the exercise.
Press Up
This exercise mainly affects your arms, trunks, and chest with a single pump. It is also popularly known as a push-up in more used terms. This exercise is widespread for all physical games and helps you build your overall body structure. The humble training can be done anywhere and will make you feel electric and energized, mainly in the upper body. You can even find players doing it on the ground while playing a cricket match.
Cook Hip LiftÂ
The modern sports industry has been plagued with injuries, and it has seen a lot of players retire in the middle of a match owing to particular pulls in their ligaments. This exercise has been steadily aimed at players prone to injuries that can fatally affect their performance. The activity aims to improve the hip and the hamstrings that go down the thighs so that they stay flexible and do not suffer a shock when you play a game. The hip exercise puts all focus into the hamstring and teaches your brain to utilize your muscles properly with flexibility. The best part about the training is that it can be done anywhere, on the field or in the dressing room, and it gets bowlers pumped up for the action on the field.
Bent Over Rows
This specific back exercise has been aimed to rectify athletes’ back problems. They are inversely proportional to press-ups and provide your body with balance, and not simply solid and bulked-up muscles. This exercise also helps promote hip movement and minimizes the chances of injury and any complications that might arise in the sudden movement of the body in the pitch.
Hang Pull
Hang Pull is focused on building power and is primarily practiced during the off-season. People who perform this need more weight on them, and the technique has to be perfect as there are chances that you might encounter an injury. This exercise is best when you do it when matches are not being played, so you do not stay lethargic and can develop a lot of stamina to do regular day-to-day tasks. Â
Final Words
Be it cricket or any sports, exercises are a must, and the main thing is that you should do them correctly. If not done in the proper manner or technique, it could hurt you and fatally injure you, so be extra careful. The ones listed are the safest and not that critical, so once learned, even you can do them in a safe place. These have the best results on cricket athletes and have been practiced for ages by all famous players of the sport.
