Throwing Shoulder Pain in Cricket

Written by: Thihan Chandramohan, physiotherapist
Category: Shoulder
Last reviewed: 18 September 2026

Before you read on

This is general information about a cricket injury, not a diagnosis of yours. Two bowlers with the same symptom often have different problems. If your back, shoulder or leg is hurting, get assessed by someone who is able to examine you.

The load nobody counts

Every cricket club counts overs. Almost none count throws.

A fielder in the deep across a long day throws repeatedly at high intent, then does it again at training, then does the fielding drill where twenty throws happen in four minutes. None of that appears in any monitoring system. So when the shoulder starts hurting, the history looks like it came from nowhere, and the conversation turns to technique or to a scan.

It rarely came from nowhere. It came from throwing volume that rose while nobody was measuring, usually alongside a change: a move to the outfield, a new fielding coach, a tournament, or a pre-season that reintroduced hard throwing quickly after a break.

What the shoulder is doing

A hard throw takes the shoulder into extreme external rotation, accelerates the arm through, then decelerates it. The deceleration is the demanding part: the muscles at the back of the shoulder absorb the throw rather than produce it, and they fatigue.

Over time, throwers develop changes in shoulder range and strength that are normal adaptations rather than damage. Problems appear when the balance shifts: rotation range changes, the muscles that decelerate the arm lose capacity relative to demand, and the tissue that has to absorb the difference starts complaining.

The pattern to recognise

Pain at the back or deep in the shoulder, at high-intent throws only.
Fine on short throws, sore on the long one from the boundary.
Sore the day after a long fielding day, settling by the next session.
Distance or velocity dropping before pain becomes constant.
Often a recent change in throwing volume or a return after a break.

Loss of throwing distance is worth taking seriously on its own. It often precedes pain, and it is easier to manage at that point.

What a sensible plan looks like

Rarely complete rest. Usually four things at once:

Modify throwing rather than removing it. Reduce distance and intent, keep frequency. Total rest erodes the tolerance you are trying to protect.
Build the back of the shoulder. Deceleration capacity, trained to the point of genuine fatigue, not with the lightest band in the bag.
Restore what has changed in rotation range and in how the shoulder blade moves, where the examination shows it matters.
Build the throw back up on distance and intent, one at a time, with a rule for what happens when it is sore the next day.

Then count throws going forward, at least roughly. A tally on a phone beats a system nobody fills in.

When it is something else

Pain with weakness, pain that wakes you at night, a shoulder that has dislocated, or pain that does not change with throwing load needs assessing properly and sometimes imaging. So does a shoulder that has not improved after a reasonable period of sensible management. Those are the presentations where a structural problem becomes more likely.

Common questions

Is throwing shoulder pain a rotator cuff tear?

Usually not. In throwers, pain far more often reflects capacity that has fallen behind throwing demand, or a change in how the shoulder moves, than a structural tear. Scans in throwing athletes frequently show findings that are present in pain-free throwers too, which is why the examination matters more than the image.

Should I stop throwing completely?

Rarely the best answer. Complete rest settles pain and removes the tolerance that made throwing possible, so it hurts again on return. Reducing distance, intent and volume while building capacity usually works better than stopping and starting.

Why does it hurt on the long throw but not the short one?

Because the long throw asks for more external rotation, more velocity and more deceleration. Pain that appears only at high intent is a capacity signal, and it is the most useful early warning you get.

Does my throwing technique need changing?

Sometimes. Before changing a throwing action, it is worth checking whether the shoulder has the strength and range the current action requires. Rebuilding capacity resolves a good share of what gets blamed on technique.

Throwing shoulder in cricket