Cricket as a sport has evolved a lot and especially in the last decade fitness has been the key mantra for the sport. Therefore one such fitness regime which changed the game for the teams was the Yo-yo test. After the West Indies tour in 2017, Indian captain Virat Kohli and the management made it very clear that players have to get past a given target to be selected for the national team.
The test raised alarm bells among some of the players. Some star batsmen like Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina made the news for failing to pass the test.
Under Virat’s captaincy, one aspect of Indian cricket which has seen major improvement has to be fitness. The Indian skipper turned vegan a year ago and keeps a total check on his fitness and body. He also controls the amount of nutrition intake every day. Kohli himself is extremely fit and has a yoyo test score of 19 and despite being the torchbearer of fitness in Indian cricket he isn’t the fittest one around.
Three players who have a higher yoyo test score than Indian skipper Virat Kohli are as follows-
Manish Pandey
Apart from his fearless batting, Pandey is also known for his acrobatic fielding on the boundaries, where he is often seen taking blinders and saving runs for his team. His abilities on the field are a testament to the fact that he has great fitness.
Although the 30-year old batsman has struggled for consistency throughout his career, his fitness has only risen in these years. Pandey has remained on the national team bench for many games but the presence of top-class middle-order batsmen has made life difficult for the Karnataka based cricketer.
But despite his topsy turvy cricketing career, he has beaten Kohli in yoyo test as Times of India has reported that Pandey has scored 19.2. Now he will hope that just like his domestic career he gets more success with his willow for the Men in Blue in future.
Mayank Dagar
A youngster from Delhi who plies his trade for Himachal Pradesh in the domestic circuit, Dagar has already risen to the Indian cricket scene with his economical off-spin and gutsy lower middle-order batting. Although he still an unknown face internationally, the 23-year old is the nephew of former Indian opening batsman Virender Sehwag.
Although his career has been nothing like Virat Kohli’s but Dagar has beaten the Indian skipper in yoyo test with a 19.3 score which he posted on social media two years ago. Dagar impressed at the 2016 U-19 World Cup where he picked up some crucial wickets and was one of the important members of the Indian team. He picked 11 wickets in 4 matches at a staggering average of 9.36 with a stingy economy of 2.88. The Kings XI Punjab acquired his services in the 2018 IPL auctions but sadly he did not even feature in a single game.
Karun Nair
Nair becomes the second batsman from Karnataka to be present in this list. However, he is more known for his extraordinary triple century. The one that he scored against England at Chennai in 2016. He is the second Indian batsman to achieve that feat in Test cricket. His record is second to Virender Sehwag, who has scored triple ton twice in his career.
However, in a live chat with Cricbuzz, Nair himself revealed he is the fittest cricketer in the team and not Virat Kohli. That is as per India’s ex-trainer Shankar Basu. In 2018, after returning from the England tour Nair spent plenty of time with the fitness trainer to work on his strength and conditioning to attain premium level. Although his yoyo test scored was not made official, we can surely trust him in this case.
“I have been spending a lot of time with (Shankar) Basu Sir, our trainer, and Sanjay Bangar sir as well, our batting coach. Obviously a lot of throwdowns and a lot of net sessions. But mainly I have been spending time with Basu Sir. According to him, I am the fittest person in the team right now. I am very proud of that and I just want to keep improving on that,” he said.
Although the triple century brought a lot of limelight to his career it also brought darkness. After that triple ton, he played in the home series against Australia. He just added a string of ordinary scores. Nair was dropped from the starting XI and spent the entire England tour on the bench.
