Indian cricket team’s score of 16.1 very low: Yo-Yo test founder

Jens Bangsbo, the man who developed the Yo-Yo test, believes India’s current score of 16.1 to determine players’ fitness level is very low.

Recently, the India cricket team head coach Ravi Shastri talked about raising the Yo-Yo test bar from 16.1 to 16.3.

The Yo-Yo test has become a mandatory requirement for selection to the Indian cricket team. (Twitter)

Shastri’s demand seems justified as Jens Bangsbo, the man who developed the Yo-Yo test, believes India’s current score of 16.1 to determine players’ fitness level is very low.

“Level 16.1 (for Indian players) is rather low,” Bangsbo, a Denmark-based professor, was quoted as saying by Deccan Chronicle.

The 61-year-old Bangsbo, who works as a Professor of Human Physiology and Exercise Physiology and Head of Copenhagen Centre of Team Sports and Health at Copenhagen Centre of Team Sports and Health, first developed the Yo-Yo test to determine football players’ fitness in Denmark.

He has now come up with another version of it which he believes is more efficient than the one in existence.

“It is just another application. The players are not running to exhaustion just 5 minutes and heart rate is measured. It is a submaximal version which is also a very useful test to see the development,” the 61-year-old said.

Bangsbo also talked about the need to develop the test and how he came up with it. “The Yo-Yo tests were developed in the early nineties, as the sports with intermittent exercise patterns were lacking appropriate tests. The performance is assessed as the distance covered in the test. Between each shuttle, there is a 5-og 10-second rest period and the participant finishes the test when he/she twice have not been able to complete the shuttle within the given time (speed is progressively increasing).”

Of late, the Yo-Yo test has caused a lot of debate in Indian cricket circle as it has become mandatory for cricketers to pass the test before being considered for selection to the national team.

Recently, wicketkeeper batsman Sanju Samson was dropped from India A squad for the tour of England after he failed to clear the test. Even fast bowler Mohammed Shami was dropped for the one-off Test against Afghanistan due to the same reason.

Before this, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh too lost their spots in the team after failing to pass the test. Raina, however, cleared it last December which made him eligible for national selection.