Gambhir’s Forthright Approach on Yuvraj Singh’s Future in Team

If you pay attention to the selection of Indian Cricket team battling with Sri Lanka under the ODI shelter, you often find your eyeballs scrolling round and round in order to rummage the big name of the Indian Cricket fraternity, Yuvraj Singh. The Indian squad for the One Day International series and one-off Twenty20 against Sri Lanka had gone through a hard surface in terms of fitness assurance of all the players in the ongoing stint. Worldwide, this Indian squad is considered as the fittest international side of all hence it seems plausible to go through various series of fitness drills prior to any overseas tournament.

Similarly before sending the Indian team onto Sri Lankan soil, the “Yo Yo” endurance test, which is considered to be the major parameters to judge a players fitness in India was conducted at the National Cricket Academy. The result was that Yuvraj Singh got spurned from the team squad as he failed to qualify the test. This was the primary reason why the left-hander was not considered for the Sri Lanka limited overs series. “Yuvraj has been rested,” said chief selector MSK Prasad, adding that “doors are never closed on anybody”.

Assessing the selectors’ decision not to pick Yuvraj, Gautam Gambhir said ‘rest’ wasn’t the right word used in this particular case. “I don’t think ‘rest’ is the right word because he (Yuvraj) hasn’t played any cricket for quite a while and he would want to play. If you want to see him at the World Cup, he should be given the maximum opportunity. Because of someone like Yuvraj, you want him in that flow, you want him in that rhythm. You can’t have someone like him playing in one series and resting thereafter,” Gambhir told.

The Delhi batsman also exemplified that it will be extremely tough for Yuvraj to get back into the team from this stage. “So, I feel that it’s difficult now for Yuvraj to make a comeback. Hopefully, he does because he is one of the greats of the game,” Gambhir said.

According to Indian dug out, the ”Yo Yo endurance test” is reckoned as an advanced version of ‘beep’ test especially considering the younger generation’s standpoint on the same. As a result of this test Indian team is recently the fittest team globally accepted by a fair distance. It is widely acknowledged for the current Indian team whose acceptable average ‘Yo Yo’ score is 19.5 whereas the skipper Virat Kohli scoring around 21 is considered to be the fittest among all for the test.

“The current team think tank, coach Ravi Shastri, skipper Virat Kohli and chairman of selectors MSK Prasad have made it clear that the fitness standards are non-negotiable. On an average, the Australian cricketers score 21 in the Yo-Yo test. 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 concluded.