Virat Kohli takes the Yo-yo fitness test but still no update on his neck injury

Kohli had always been a stunning example of a player who was in a physical condition and having a fitness that were paralleled, with injuries or niggles hardly in the picture. But now, it seemed that with time, age has finally caught up with him and after he injured his neck in the latter stages of this year’s IPL, his return has been a concern.

However, despite his injury, Kohli has been named in the squad to travel to the United Kingdom next month for a tour of England and Ireland. To recuperate fast, he was withdrawn from the Test squad to face Afghanistan and also backed out of a County stint with Surrey. Now, reports have surfaced that the Delhi-born batsman undertook the BCCI-made mandatory Yo-yo test to determine his fitness level.

The fitness gauging test, which was the basic fitness parameter set by the Indian team management before any tour, was conducted at the National Cricket Academy ground and in the presence of Team India trainer Shankar Basu and the other support staff. Kohli, along with former Indian skipper MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and the injured Kedar Jadhav, who is not in any of the Indian squads that are heading to UK, took the advanced beep test as part of the first batch.

Kohli did not display any signs of discomfort during the Test but was seen clutching his back and shoulders after he completed the test. While the Yo-Yo Test is the basic parameter for selection, it will be the status of the batsman’s neck injury that would decide his availability for the Ireland T20 Internationals to be played from June 27 to 29. The tour of England, that includes three T20 Internationals, three ODIs, and five Test matches, will be starting from July 3.

After Kohli’s batch was done with their test, the likes of pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Siddharth Kaul, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Manish Pandey were next to take their respective examinations.