Sri Lanka Vs India 2017: "Failing The Yo-Yo Test Wasn't The Reason For Yuvraj Singh's Omission"

Speculations were rife that Yuvraj Singh‘s struggling career has hit a roadblock after reports emerged that the World Cup-winning star along with Suresh Raina failed the ‘Yo-Yo’ endurance test at the National Cricket Academy which was seen as the primary reason why the duo was not considered for the upcoming limited-overs series against Sri Lanka.

Team Indian regularly undergoes a series of fitness tests with ‘Yo-Yo’ endurance test being the most important of them. However, reports suggested that both Yuvraj and Raina scored well below the permissible level of 19.5 with Yuvraj barely managing to touch 16 which elevated speculations that poor fitness was the reason behind Yuvraj’s ouster from the team.

However, a source has dismissed all the reports and reiterated chief selector MSK Prasad‘s statement that Yuvraj was not dropped but rested.

“Those reports are completely wrong. It wasn’t the reason for his omission,” the source was quoted as saying by The Times of India on Thursday (August 17).

“Yuvraj has been rested,” Prasad had said after squad selection.“Doors are never closed on anybody. Everybody has got a right to play cricket. It’s their passion. They are chasing their passion. In terms of selection, we try to select the best possible team.

Meanwhile, former Indian team trainer Ramji Srinivasan, who was with the team from 2009-2013, also insisted that the team would not have dropped a cricketer by just considering the Yo-Yo test results.

“The Yo-Yo test is done to assess the aerobic fitness of an individual. However, it is not just that one aspect that decides a player’s fitness levels. There are many other tests that are done to measure the strength, flexibility, speed, power, agility, core strength etc. I don’t think the BCCI would drop or remove somebody just based on the report of one test,” Ramji said.

The former trainer further expressed his shock over the reports suggesting that Raina and Yuvraj failed the fitness tests.

“I have seen both of them for the past 15 years. Their work ethics are superb. They have always set the standards high. And Yuvraj worked tremendously hard on his fitness to stage a comeback from cancer. I was actually shocked when I came to know about that report,” said Ramji before adding that there are a lot of specific tests carried out on batsmen and bowlers such as reaction time, hand eye coordination and a few others.