Amid Injury Crisis, BCCI Begins Pre-Season Fitness Tests - Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson Report Ahead Of Asian Games 2026

Indian players are gearing up for a packed cricket season and the BCCI seem to have implemented stricter fitness norms. After the IND vs SL series ended, the men's cricket team have a three week break from commitments, which will be followed by a series of multi-format commitments.

In snapshots shared by BCCI on social media, several Indian cricket stars reported to the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for routine fitness assessments. T20I captain Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Ruturaj Gaikwad were all present alongside the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja.

India's injury crisis

"The players who had to undergo the mandated fitness arrived in batches and completed their respective tests ahead of a busy season," BCCI revealed in their post.

The players arrived in batches with India's Test stars likely to have done the tests before leaving for the Sri Lanka series. The likes of Gaikwad and others are in action for the Duleep Trophy and would have reported for the same.

It comes after injury have ravaged Indian cricket over the last couple of months. The Men in Blue were without Hardik Pandya, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy for the England tour, while Washington Sundar, Sai Sudharsan and Jasprit Bumrah were all injured for the IND vs SL Tests.

The Indian team will face off against Afghanistan for 3 T20Is, followed by the ODI and T20I series against the West Indies. A T20I team will also compete in the Asian Games 2026, while there is a multi-format tour of New Zealand.

BCCI mandates new fitness standards

Given the injury crisis, Times of India reported that the BCCI standardised fitness parameters for cricketers. The Bronco test is mandated over the yo-yo test, while a 9-10 minute mark is set for them to complete the 2 km running test which is known as the 2K test.