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

2. DETERMINES THE VALUE OF THE PLAYER IN THE FIELD

Nehra scored 18.5 last year in the test at the age of 38

In the previous point, we had mentioned about batsmen taking runs against the fielders. Now just reverse the situation. You are a fielder and you have to stop the batsmen from taking quick runs against you. For that you must be able to get off the blocks quickly and sprint towards the ball and hopefully create confusion amidst the batsmen.

Fielding in the outfield is a much tougher job, as the fielder would have to stop the boundaries as well as the doubles. In order to stop boundaries, you’ll again have to be quick as a fielder and cover good ground. If you aren’t quick enough in both the above cases, batsmen would even after a point look to target you in the field having spotted you as a slow mover in the field.

When taking running catches too, the speed becomes an important factor. A fitter player would be able to cover more ground and more often than not, increase his chances of completing the catch. There would also be a couple of average fielders in the team, mostly fast bowlers, who would field at third-man or fine-leg. Even for them, fitness would be important because they would have to run around saving runs immediately after an energy-sapping over.

So, in many ways, the Yo-Yo test would determine whether the player would be a good asset in the field or not. The importance of having quick fielders in the Indian team was first given high priority by Dhoni, during his famous exclusion of 3 big names from the team in early 2008. Since then, the level of Indian fielding has gone up tremendously.