Haryana all-rounder Rahul Tewatia has failed BCCI’s newly laid fitness Test after being named in the Indian T20I squad for the upcoming series against England. His performances for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2020 earned his maiden international call-up but it seems his fitness is an issue.
He is the second player after Varun Chakravarty who has failed the fitness Test. Tewatia notched up 255 runs and scalped ten wickets in 14 matches for the Royals. Rahul Tewatia had received his maiden national call-up ahead of the five-match series along with the likes of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav.
As per a report in The Telegraph, Tewatia and spinner Varun Chakravarthy both failed to meet the minimum requirements in the fitness test conducted by Team India. The national team players are expected to score a minimum of 17.1 in the Yo-Yo Test or cover a distance of 2km in 8.3 minutes to match BCCI’s fitness criteria and be eligible for selection.
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Rahul Tewatia Fails BCCI’s Fitness Test
Both Tewatia and Chakravarthy will be asked to undergo the tests once again. “It has been introduced to push fitness standards and maintain endurance. He will get more than one chance,” a source was quoted as saying.
Though the Haryana-all-rounder has failed the fitness test on the first attempt, he has a second chance to set it right. All the players who fail to clear the fitness test in the first attempt are awarded a second chance to pass it and prove their endurance and fitness levels.
Tewatia made his name against Kings XI Punjab now Punjab Kings in IPL 2020 scoring 31-ball 53 to help Rajasthan Royals secure an improbable win. Tewatia had slammed 5 sixes in an over against Sheldon Cottrell after scoring almost nothing in his first 19 balls.
India’s T20I Squad
Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Y Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, W Sundar, R Tewatia, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep, Shardul Thakur
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