3 REASONS WHY YO-YO TEST SHOULD BE A MANDATORY CRITERION FOR INDIAN TEAM SELECTION

1. TESTS THE ABILITY OF A BATSMAN TO RUN QUICK SINGLES/DOUBLES CONSISTENTLY

Kohli and Pandey had set new benchmarks for the test last year

For a modern day batsman, anything has become possible. Many existing records have been broken and new benchmarks of batting have been set. With the current generation of ODI batsmen maximizing run scoring in a big way, just scoring a boundary or two every over won’t be enough. Even off the remaining balls they should keep looking to get the quick singles, doubles.

If they need to play long innings, they’ll have to keep doing this consistently, sometimes even after reaching a century. A quick batsman would take about 2-3 seconds to take a quick run, get rest for a few seconds and then get ready for the next ball.

In the higher levels of the Yo-Yo tests, one has to cover 20 meters in about the same time and return back to finish a shuttle. Effectively, these tests would enable batsmen to become fitter and run these quick runs more often.

A batsman who is quite talented as a stroke-maker but having failed the Yo-Yo test would turn out to be a liability for the team because he would become tired to take those quick runs after a while and would have to rely only on his boundary-scoring ability to make up for it. In this quest, there is a good chance of him getting out after getting a good start which is definitely not what the team needs. They need a batsman who can run well even after being at the crease for 2 hours and bring runs for the team.

The likes of Kohli, Williamson, who are always looking to steal quick runs from the opposition, can attribute their success in a way to their fitness levels too. Making Yo-Yo test a mandatory selection criterion makes talented batsmen place high priority on their fitness, which is also required to be successful today.