Irfan Pathan mocks Mohammad Kaif’s yo-yo test jibe at former Indian cricketers
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Irfan Pathan has responded to Mohammad Kaif’s claim that only three Indian cricketers, from his era, would have been able to beat the yo-yo test by claiming his results were almost as good as the UP man. Kaif had named himself, Yuvraj Singh and Lakshmipathy Balaji as the fittest players in the team.
Anyone who has followed Indian cricket for a couple of decades can attest to the incredible rise in standards that the Indian team has witnessed. From the days when dropped catches and misfields were the norm, India has, arguably, become one of the most consistent sides as far as fielding is concerned. Fielding aside, even as far as raw fitness was concerned, India were way behind their rivals and it took the introduction of MS Dhoni, and later Virat Kohli, to make India a powerhouse in terms of fitness. With the introduction of the yo-yo test, in 2016, as a qualifier to be in the team, the management sent a clear message to all the cricketers who wished to don the famous blue jersey. And it saw quite a few high profile names being dropped from the side due to their lack of results with the test.Â
Recently, former Indian star Mohammad Kaif had claimed that not too many players from his era would have been successful in passing the test. Kaif, who was considered one of the finest fielders ever produced by India, went on to name just three players that he believed would have cleared the yo-yo test.Â
“Fitness is very important for cricketers. If we did the Yo-Yo test during our time, Balaji and I could have fulfilled that criteria, even Yuvraj Singh was good. But, I do not think that others would have passed the Yo-Yo test,” Kaif had been quoted saying.
Irfan Pathan, though, was not too pleased with Kaif’s statements and was quick to respond, albeit with a tongue in cheek comment. Irfan, who was engaged in a live session with Kaif and Yousuf Pathan, decided to take a dig at Kaif by asking if the rest of his teammates were “selling nuts”.
“I heard your statement that in our time if the yo-yo test was there, only Balaji, you and Yuvraj would’ve passed. Fir hum kya kar rahe the… chane bech rahe the hum? (laughs) (What we were doing? Were we selling nuts?)…” Irfan asked, reported Cricket Times.
But the man from Baroda was not quite done. Pathan, who represented India 120 times in ODI cricket, went on to claim that not only did he run “alongside” Kaif, in terms of numbers he was  a mere 0.5 points behind the man from UP.
“I used to run alongside you competitively, you used to make 16, and I did 15.5 on average,” claimed Irfan.
