The game of cricket has evolved to a great extent lately. Modern Cricket demands a lot of athleticism and agility. Maybe this is what BCCI had in mind when they made a crucial change in the Indian team’s selection procedure. The players will now have to undergo a new rigorous fitness test before they can make their way into the national team. Earlier, the BCCI had made the Yo-Yo selection procedure mandatory but now, they are looking forward to taking a step forward.
Besides Batting and Bowling, fielding has grown up to become one of the most essential ‘winning factor’ in the game. In modern-day cricket, fielding is what often wins the team it matches. Ravindra Jadeja and Manish Pandey are some of the best fielders in India. Even in India’s tour of Australia that took place recently, Ravindra Jadeja’s lethal throws and fielding was what won many matches for the men in blue. Proper fitness and agility is the key to good fielding. That is one of the reasons why BCCI took this decision.
The cricket governing board of India has now introduced an endurance test along with the Yo-yo selection process. The rules of Test cricket are rather different for pacers. They are also different for the other players. Fast bowlers will be expected to run 2KM within eight minutes and 15 seconds. The benchmark for batsmen, spinners, and wicket-keepers would be eight minutes and 30 seconds.
This new rule will be functional from India’s test against England. This implies that the players have to give this test before the commencement of the series. However, the players who were in India’s Test squad against Australia have been relieved from this selection procedure. All the other players will have to undergo both tests though.
Many Key Players Are Unavailable, Due To Injuries:
In India’s test series against Australia, a lot of Indian players had been injured. In fact, team India had to play without almost all of its key players in the last test match. Jasprit Bumrah, Muhammad Shami, Hanuma Vihari, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, all had to suffer injuries at some point in the series. Yet, the men in blue came out with flying colors and clinched the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
Many of the Indian squad players who got injured, will miss some of the matches in the upcoming series as well. Ravindra Jadeja for instance will be unavailable for the Test series against England. This is a big blow to the Indian National team.
These many injuries might be another reason why BCCI is concentrating so much on the players’ fitness.
Full Indian Squad Picked After This BCCI Policy:
Openers: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal
Middle-order: Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul (subject to fitness after first Test)
Fast bowlers: Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.
Spinners: R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel
Standbys: KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Priyank Panchal
Net bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, K Gowtham, Saurabh Kumar
