Won’t agree with Yo-Yo Test being the major criteria for selection; skill remains important, opines Virender Sehwag

In the last two years, Yo-Yo Test has become a telling factor for the selection of players in the Indian outfit. Despite the likes of Rahul Tewatia and Varun Chakravarthy being picked on their IPL form, the duo reportedly failed the fitness test, which then resulted in them being out of the squad and selection. The leg-spinner was replaced by fellow leg-spinner Rahul Chahar in the squad, with Chahar making an appearance in the last two T20Is. 

While Virat Kohli has stressed that fitness remains the most important bit of selection for the Indian team, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag disagrees with the Indian skipper. Sehwag opined that he won’t agree with the Yo-Yo Test being the major criteria for selection and insisted that skills should remain the most important factor. 

“Skill is important, today if you are playing a fit team but don’t have the skills, then you would ultimately end up losing. Play them based on their skills, slowly you can improve their fitness over time but if is yo-yo criteria is applied straight away, then the talks are different. If a player can field and bowl 10 overs, that should be enough, we shouldn’t be concerned about the other things,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz, on their YouTube video. 

The former Indian opener also shed some light on the fitness Tests conducted in the past era, stating that the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly didn’t pass these Tests. He also added that with Hardik Pandya, it was never about fitness but more about workload, with the all-rounder already having bowled plenty of overs in the five-match T20I series. 

“I want to tell you one thing, here we are talking about yo-yo Test, Hardik Pandya doesn’t have issues with running, he has issues with workload because of his bowling. However, Ashwin and (Varun) Chakravarthy, on the other hand, haven’t cleared the yo-yo Test, that’s why they aren’t here. But I won’t agree with all of this, if these criteria existed before, Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly wouldn’t have passed it. During my time, we had such a test, where they always fell short of the 12.5 mark,” he concluded.