Former World Cup winning skipper Kapil Dev has backed cricketing fitness more than the Yo-Yo Test. Kapil believes it is imperative for the players to be fit as a fiddle. However, the former talismanic all-rounder said the cricketing skills are also crucial in the game. Dev gave two examples of players who might not be at the top of their fitness but played a key role for the Indian team.
The Haryana Hurricane said Ravichandran Ashwin is not the swiftest of players in the game. In fact, Ashwin can be lame in the field. However, there is no question regarding the skills of Ashwin as an off-spinner. Ashwin has done a fine job for the Indian team.
Cricketing skills are crucial.
Similarly, Kapil Dev said former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly was not the fastest of players. However, he was a fine ODI player and led India with aplomb in his captaincy tenure.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri have given a huge importance to Yo-Yo Tests for the national selection. In fact, players have been dropped if they have failed to clear the fitness test.
“I think it’s important to keep a fitness level but in my mind, cricketing fitness is more important than anything else and cricketing fitness is different from Yo-Yo Tests,” Kapil Dev was quoted as saying by Sportstar.
“If I say (Ravichandran) Ashwin is not a 100 percent athlete but he is a 100 percent performer of the game, he has achieved more than anybody in the history of the game, can you really say he is not good enough for selection if he doesn’t pass the Yo-Yo Test? Same with (Saurav) Ganguly, he wasn’t one of the best athletes but he was one of the best captains we have had,” he added.
Kapil Dev has a valid point however the BCCI has made it a hardcore rule for the players to pass Yo-Yo Test to make themselves available for team selection.