Virat Kohli clears YoYo test; Ambati Rayudu fails, set to be dropped for England tour

Bengaluru: India captain Virat Kohli is all set to take part in the two-match T20 Internationals in Ireland after comfortably clearing the YoYo test but there was bad news for middle-order batsman Ambati Rayudu, who is set to be dropped after failing to attain required parameters in Bengaluru on Friday.

“Almost all the players including skipper Virat Kohli have comfortably cleared the qualifying mark for the YoYo test. Ambati Rayudu is the only player in the UK-bound squad, who has failed to clear the fitness test. His score is well below the permissible 16.1 set for the India and India A team. Rayudu will be dropped from the squad,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

Rayudu had made a comeback in the ODI squad after more than one and half years in wilderness largely on the back of his IPL performance.

It is learnt that Rayudu, who had a major role in Chennai Super Kings’ victorious IPL campaign, performed well below-par in the range of 14.

A lot of people were shocked as to how someone who has scored close to 600 runs in the IPL couldn’t maintain requisite fitness standard within three weeks of the tournament’s completion.

The UK-bound limited overs specialist were today summoned at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for the customary YoYo Test with Kohli, MS Dhoni, Bhuvneshwar Kumar taking the test in the first batch.

Kohli didn’t look in any discomfort while taking the advanced beep test as he matched Dhoni step for step along with Bhuvneshwar, Kedar Jadhav and Suresh Raina.

Incidentally Raina, who was one of the first players last year to have flunked the YoYo test (along with Yuvraj Sigh), has comfortably cleared it this time round.

It will be interesting to see who gets a chance in the ODI squad as Rayudu is now set to be dropped.

The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Siddharth Kaul, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey were also seen taking the test after the batch comprising Kohli and Dhoni were done with theirs.

Earlier, the neck injury which he sustained during the IPL had thrown Kohli’s build-up for the UK tour in haywire as he had to pull out of a planned stint with Surrey in the County Championship this month.

The YoYo test, which is the basic fitness parameter set by the Indian team management before any tour, was conducted at the National Cricket Academy ground, in the presence of Team India trainer Shankar Basu and the other support staff.

India will tour Ireland for T20 Internationals scheduled for June 27 and 29.

The tour of England, comprising three T20 Internationals, three ODIs amd five Test matches, starts on July 3.