'Discard These Yo-Yo Tests' - Sunil Gavaskar After Pant And Sarfaraz's Heroics In Bengaluru
Sunil Gavaskar Talks about fitness- (Source: @PantFanClub/X.com)
India suffered an embarrassing and unexpected defeat against New Zealand in the opening Test match of the ongoing three-match series in Bengaluru recently.
The batters disappointed the fans with their performance, but the two-star players who stood out at Chinnaswamy were Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan. Notably, Khan whacked his maiden Test century, while Pant missed out on a historic seventh Test ton by a run and fell on 99.
Gavaskar Slams BCCI For Denying Opportunities To Oversized Cricketers
In the latest events, former India opener turned commentator Sunil Gavaskar, in his column for Sportstar pointed out that there is no correlation between the slimmest waist being the best player.
Gavaskar cited the example of Sarfaraz and Pant, who are not the fittest players in the Indian team, and remarked that fitness is not everything in cricket. He said:
"Sarfaraz Khan has been denied a place in the Indian team for some years now, despite scoring runs by the hundreds in domestic cricket. This was largely because those in a position to make decisions believed he didn’t have the slim waist they deemed necessary for international cricket. Sarfaraz’s returns on the field with the bat were even more prodigious than his waistline. Sadly, Indian cricket has had too many decision-makers with ideas that are hard to fathom."
"Way back during my playing days, Karsan Ghavri was not picked for the twin tours of New Zealand and the West Indies, apparently because he chewed paan, which wasn’t considered appropriate by a highly voluble selector who, throughout his life, only sought to impress his friends at Lord’s. It’s not just him — many people in India have this strange notion that a slim waist signifies a fit person. How often have we heard someone look at a slim-waisted individual and say how fit they are? Sports fitness doesn’t depend on slim waists alone. If the mind is strong, then physical fitness can largely be controlled by it."
Gavaskar Urges BCCI To End Yo-Yo Tests
Further, Gavaskar called for BCCI to discard yo-yo Tests in Cricket as it denies opportunity to players like Sarfaraz and Pant, who were the stars with the bat against New Zealand.
Rishabh Pant is another player who doesn’t possess the slim waist that these fitness purists seem to want, but what an impact player he is. Let’s not forget that he also keeps wickets all day, which not only requires getting up and down for around six hours of play but also running to the stumps to gather the throws. So, please discard these yoyo-toyo tests and instead assess how strong a player is mentally. That will be a true indicator of a player’s fitness. If a player can bat the whole day or bowl 20 overs in a day, he is match-fit, regardless of how slim or not his waist is.
India will next face New Zealand for 2nd Test on October 24 in Pune.
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