BCCI to conduct fitness test before national team selection
The BCCI has decided to conduct fitness test of players before they are picked for the national squad to avoid late withdrawals and confusion. Recently, Mohammed. Shami, Ambati Rayudu were dropped from national team while Sanju Samson was dropped from India A squad after failing Yo-Yo test.
The Yo-Yo test has been the talking point in Indian cricket for past few months. The test originally introduced by John Wright as a training routine back in 2002 has now become an eligibility criterion for players under coach Ravi Shastri.
Ambati Rayudu, after making a comeback in national side following his CSK heroics, was dropped after his failure to pass in the Yo-Yo test. However, he wasn't the first person to be dropped as Mohammed Shami was also dropped from
The teams for the one-off Afghanistan Test, India and India A tour of the UK, were announced in the middle of the IPL last month and with their failure in Yo-yo test, the BCCI needed to look for quick replacements. Hence, it has now been decided that players will be selected only after passing the fitness test.
“Going forward, players will be picked after they pass the fitness test. The players gave the fitness test after being picked for the UK tour because of the IPL. It puts the players in an awkward situation and it will not be repeated,” a BCCI official told PTI.
The issue was discussed at the latest Committee of Administrators (CoA) meeting in the presence of chairman Vinod Rai, Diana Edulji, BCCI CEO Rahul Johri and Saba Karim, who is the BCCI general manager of cricket operations.
Rayudu, who had made a comeback to the Indian ODI squad after a prolific IPL scoring 602 runs for Chennai Super Kings, was not able to attain the fitness standard set by the team management. Therefore, his CSK teammate Suresh Raina replaced him for the ODI series in England.
Earlier in June, Shami could not ace the ‘Yo-Yo’ test and was replaced by Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini in the squad for the Test against Afghanistan in Bengaluru. The pacer would, however, get another opportunity to prove his fitness before the team for the five Tests against England is picked as he was reportedly suffering from a shoulder injury.
