Following a drastic defeat in the recent Border Gavaskar Trophy, both the Indian cricket team and BCCI received multiple criticisms from former cricketers and cricket experts. For the first time in WTC history, India failed to qualify for the finals after losing the BGT 2024-25 by 3-1.
The defeat pushed Team India, coaching staff and BCCI under scrutiny. As per a report, BCCI is likely to bring back the old fitness tests, with the Yo-Yo likely to make a comeback in the India cricket team.
Previously, under Virat Kohli’s captaincy, the Yo-Yo Test was used to determine the fitness levels of the players. Former Indian cricket team’s strength and conditioning coach Shankar Basu introduced the Yo-Yo test to the national side ahead of India’s tour of Sri Lanka in 2017.
But under the previous management under Dravid, this Test was removed owing to workload management and injury crisis of the players. Furthermore, the additional travel made it much more difficult for the players.
Many of you may not be aware of the term Yo-Yo test, for those we have explained “What is Yo-Yo test?”, along with the rules, types and scoring method.
As per Times of India, the Yo-yo Test can be back as a mandatory mandate as it was previously. It is believed that some of the players have been lenient and have taken advantage of the absence of the Yo-yo Test.
“The board had relaxed its stance on player fitness due to the constant traveling. Focus shifted to injury prevention, but this has been somewhat overlooked by certain players. There’s a growing sentiment that we need to reintroduce specific fitness criteria to prevent complacency from settling in,” a source disclosed to the Times of India.
Apart from planning to reintroduce the Yo-Yo test, BCCI has also made a couple of changes for the team.
- The stay of wives and family members has been cut short.
- All the players should travel together in the team bus at all times.
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