What is a YO-YO test?

During modern times, fitness has become an important cog in the wheel for any cricket team. A slow fielder is considered to be a liability in the eleven. Running swiftly between the wickets has become one of the skills that every batsman should possess. There have been instances where people have been dropped from sides due to their poor fitness standards.

Fitness standards have evolved, and the ways to measure them have also evolved. One of the most commonly used and talked about method nowadays is the Yo-Yo test.

As the name suggests it requires players to move the way a Yo-Yo moves, start from a particular point and come back to the same point. Two cones are placed 20 meters apart, on the first beep player starts to move towards the other cone. Before the second beep, the player has to reach the second cone and he should be back before the third beep. The duration between the two beeps is reduced gradually. This routine between two cones is called a trip. There is a specific time interval between two trips.

The score of a particular player is the point where he misses two beeps. Various teams have set different thresholds as the qualification mark. For the Indian team, the required score is 16.1. For games like football, the threshold is way above 16.1, as a game like football requires a much higher level of physical fitness.

Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli is considered to be the fittest athlete in the Indian team, he scores around 19 on the Yo-Yo benchmark.

It has been some years, since the Indian team has embraced the Yo-Yo test to measure the fitness levels of its players. Lately, It has become an important criterion for team selection. There has been some criticism of this approach from few former players, but, the way captain Kohli puts emphasis on fitness, it won't be an exaggeration to say that Yo-Yo test is here to stay.