Yo-yo test determines the fittest player in the England team

The distance he covered in the yo-yo test is just too good.

All the major cricket teams in the world have a fitness test as a basic parameter to be eligible for selection. It is the yo-yo fitness test that checks the level of endurance of the cricketers and different teams have different benchmarks. It has been in news a lot lately as the Indian cricket team implemented it and a lot of players have found themselves out of the squad failing to clear the test. England also follow it and guess who’s the champion? – it’s Alastair Cook.

The English team has a bunch of athletic and energetic youngsters who want to make a difference in all the aspects of the game. There is Ben Stokes who is arguably the best fielder in that team, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler two amazing wicketkeepers who also run fast between the wickets. Of course, their fast bowlers Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and others but the man who steals the show is the former skipper.

Over the years Cook seems to have mastered the yo-yo test specifically preparing for it. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) posted a video from the recent session and Bairstow describes how he manages to get the better of Cook in the sprint test and other challenges but when it comes to yo-yo he’s just unstoppable.

“The yo-yo test is obviously pretty brutal. It is something that over a period of time, many many years that we’ve had to endure. It is not enjoyable at all, no one looks forward to doing it Cookie obviously won it for the last however many years. He is a machine, he just keeps going. I’ll have him on the sprint test but when it comes to yo-yo he just doesn’t stop,” Bairstow said in a video published by the ECB.

James Anderson, Joe Root, Stuart Broad all of them go down one after the other. In the end, it was just Cook and Bairstow who competed and after a while, it was just him. Cook completed 3080 meters on the yo-yo test and at 33 is still the fittest cricketer in this England team. He was down on all fours after the last sprint and shows that he gave it his all.

Here is the video of his last sprint:

You can watch the full video here.