India Cricket Team Selection: Fitness Tests No More A 'Criteria'

What is the most important thing in playing cricket? Perhaps skills, performance, talent and that's it. This is what the India Cricket Board's medical team at the National Criket Academy (NCA) believes and that is why instead of 'fitness test' like the yo-yo test, they prefer the test of injury preventives and performance for the already selected (contracted players). (More Cricket News)

Back in 2019, during the ODI World Cup the all rounder Hardik Pandya sustained injury post tournament. In the 2022 T20 World Cup India's bowling master Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out due to back injury which came barely two weeks after he was passed fit from a previous one.

This, 2024 ICC T20 World Cup, remains one of the rare events where none of the players in Indian squad faced injuries severe enough to rule them out or cause long-term pain.

According to the reports of the Times Of India, NCA has revised its selection process by removing 'fitness' as one of criterias and marking it only as a 'fitness measure'. The three key assessments determining team suitability are the National Fitness Testing Criteria (NFTC), Performance Testing battery, and injury prevention tests.

The National Fitness Testing Criteria (NFTC), Performance Testing battery, and prevention tests encompass a range of assessments:

The NFTC consists 10-meter sprint test, 20-meter sprint, Standing long jump, Yo-yo test and DEXA scan (fat percentage), conducted every 12-16 weeks. The performance testing which includes simple exercises like squat, walking, lunges etc are taken every six weeks and the injury prevention assessments occur every two weeks. Just after the mention of the above in the document, NCA has stated 'please note these are only fitness measures and not a selection criteria.'

Nevertheless, now that the NFTC is not the selection criteria, it means that once a player has successfully completed the Yo-Yo test along with the 20-meter sprint, achieving a score of 16.5 for centrally contracted players (and 16.7 for emerging players), these tests are not considered critical thereafter.

According to sources from the BCCI as reported by TOI,"the idea is that once a player is centrally contracted, he must have reached the desired level of fitness.

"With the amount of cricket and time they spend on the road, it is unreasonable for contracted players to undergo NFTC tests. So, the focus has shifted to injury prevention and performance tests. Team India strength and conditioning coach Soham Desai, along with physios Yogesh Parmar, Thulasi and Kamlesh Jain, has done a great job keeping the players in shape through the 2023 ODI World Cup and this T20 World Cup."