Team India’s biggest secret revealed: Why Yuvraj was dropped and Dhoni selected

Photo: BCCI

New Delhi: One of the biggest mysteries in Indian cricket at present is the exact status of Yuvraj Singh. Is he dropped or is he rested? Is he in the scheme of things for 2019 World Cup? Chairman of selectors MSK Prasad courted further controversy by suggesting that “Yuvraj was rested” despite the fact that the 35-year-old left-hander was playing just the limited overs format.

However sources in the BCCI have confirmed that Yuvraj has been omitted from the squad completely for fitness reasons. Sources said that Yuvraj fared poorly in the recent fitness test conducted at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore with a score of around 13 in the YoYo test, which is well accepted level of 16 in professional cricket. Yuvraj’s fitness has been under scrutiny for quite some time.

Interestingly, former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni fared outstandingly well in the YoYo drill and came third overall in the ratings when compared with other members --- one of the main reasons why the selectors retained the senior player in the young Indian side.  

The fitness tests were conducted simultaneously in Kandy and at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and results were compared to know who was the fittest amongst the lot and monitor their levels. YoYo tests are a series of shuttle runs between two cones kept 20m apart at increasingly faster speeds than their last run with a 5 second recovery period.     

The biggest news, however, is that the fittest member of Team India is not Virat Kohli. According to sources, Virat has been piped to the post by Manish Pandey, who has the highest score of 19.2 as compared to Virat’s score of 19.

The recent emphasis on fitness has come after coach Ravi Shastri making it clear that fitness would be top priority for the team and he wants India to be the fittest and the best fielding side in the world apart from batting and fielding departments.

Yuvraj’s comeback, according to board, now hinges completely on his ability to improve his fitness dramatically and also on the younger players not being able to score big.