Failure in ‘Yo-Yo’ endurance test reason for Yuvraj omission

The left-hander, alongside Suresh Raina, fared poorly in the test at the National Cricket Academy.

Yuvraj Singh barely managed to score 16 in the test.

Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina paid the price for faring poorly in a ‘Yo-Yo’ endurance test at the National Cricket Academy - exclusion from the national limited-overs side .

It has been learnt that for the current Indian team, the acceptable ‘Yo-Yo’ score is 19.5 and upwards. Captain Virat Kohli, easily the fittest Indian cricketer, scores around 21 in the test. However, Yuvraj and Raina scored well below the permissible level of 19.5 with Yuvraj managing to barely touch 16, which was the biggest reason for his ouster.

“The current team think tank, coach Ravi Shastri, skipper Virat Kohli and chairman of selectors M.S.K. Prasad have made it clear that fitness standards are non-negotiable. On an average, the Australian cricketers score 21 in ‘Yo-Yo’ tests. Here Virat, Ravindra Jadeja, Manish Pandey regularly hit that score while others are either touching 19.5 or is hitting above that score,” a BCCI official told PTI .

“In an earlier era, when the traditional beep test was in vogue, the Indian players of the 1990s would have scored around 16 to 16.5 barring a few like Mohammed Azharuddin, Robin Singh or Ajay Jadeja. But now it’s different as the skipper himself is hitting the benchmark, which the Australian cricket team sets,” the official added.