Virender Sehwag believes that playing skills should be paramount for selection criteria in the Indian team.
Over the past few years, there has been an increased focus on fitness in the Indian cricket team. As Virat Kohli took over the reins as the captain of the side, Indian cricket saw a fitness revolution of sorts, with Yo-Yo Tests (and a further enhanced level of fitness test earlier this year) being made mandatory for selection in the senior squad.
Recently, spinner Varun Chakravarthy was ruled out of the squad after failing the test, even as he was initially selected in the T20I squad for the five-match series against England.
Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has now suggested that fitness tests shouldn't be a priority for selection in the Indian team. He believes that playing skills should be paramount for the criteria.
“Skill is important, today if you are playing a fit team but don’t have the skills, then you would ultimately end up losing," Sehwag told CricBuzz.
"Play them based on their skills, slowly you can improve their fitness over time but if is yo-yo criteria is applied straight away, then the talks are different. If a player can field and bowl 10 overs, that should be enough, we shouldn’t be concerned about the other things.”
The former Indian opening batsman further said that the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman or Sourav Ganguly wouldn't have played for the Indian team under the current fitness criteria for selection.
“I want to tell you one thing, here we are talking about yo-yo Test, Hardik Pandya doesn’t have issues with running, he has issues with workload because of his bowling. However, Ashwin and (Varun) Chakravarthy, on the other hand, haven’t cleared the yo-yo Test, that’s why they aren’t here. But I won’t agree with all of this, if these criteria existed before, then the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly wouldn’t have passed it. I have never seen them pass the beep test. They always fell short of the 12.5 mark,” Sehwag said.
Over the past few years, many renowned names like Mohammed Shami, Ambati Rayudu and Sanju Samson among others have failed the fitness test.
