Harshit Rana flagged overweight, Siraj caught off-guard: CoE’s flawed fitness system exposed as BCCI orders overhaul

According to a report in The Times of India, internal reviews found that the absence of standardised fitness benchmarks and the reliance on customised testing had contributed to a decline in overall fitness standards, prompting the CoE to standardise base fitness parameters. The development comes after a difficult year in which several Indian players struggled with recurring injuries, forcing the BCCI’s medical team to rethink its entire approach to workload management and return-to-play protocols.

One of the biggest revelations in the report concerns the confusion surrounding fitness assessments. After Adrian Le Roux replaced Soham Desai as India’s strength and conditioning coach last year, the team moved away from the Yo-Yo test and adopted the Bronco test as its primary fitness assessment. However, unlike the Yo-Yo test, the Bronco initially had no standard benchmark for players, many of whom were unfamiliar with the new fitness regime.

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The report claimed that over the past year, the CoE assigned different base parameters to different players while conducting the Bronco test. Certain senior players were reportedly given “comfortable targets”, while players like Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy were cleared after adjustments were made according to the Indian team management’s requirements.

The report also revealed that the BCCI is unhappy with India team physio Kamlesh Jain over the dip in fitness standards and the growing list of injuries.

“Kamlesh has been told that he shouldn’t worry about any player’s stature and flag anything that he doesn’t find satisfactory. It has been observed that the mobility of some players on the field has been questionable. Senior batters are struggling to push their running between the wickets as they bat longer. The number of slow fielders has increased,” a source told the newspaper.

Two particular cases highlighted in the report were those of Siraj and Rana.

The senior fast bowler was reportedly surprised when he was subjected to the revised Bronco test upon arriving at the CoE before India’s tour of Sri Lanka.

“It is only now that contracted players have been handed the base parameters of the new tests. The Test regulars were caught off guard by the programme given to them at CoE. The players who are not part of the Test team are now starting to work according to the base parameter,” the source said.

As for Rana, the report claimed that the Indian team management flagged him as being around four kilograms overweight after he returned from England and was sent back to the CoE following the third T20I.

“The CoE should have been much more vigilant. It has now been told by CoE staff that his weight can’t exceed 95kgs. He is now 94kgs and is expected to be cleared next week. But he was 97kgs when he was cleared to be picked for the Indian team for the UK tour,” the source added.

Bumrah’s latest injury has only intensified the spotlight on India’s fitness management system. The premier fast bowler has been ruled out of the upcoming Test series in Sri Lanka after suffering another knee injury during the ODI series in England, despite selectors and team management initially believing he would recover in time.

To address the shortcomings, the CoE has now introduced a far stricter fitness protocol. Players returning from injury must clear two Bronco tests on separate days before being declared fit, while the assessment itself will now be conducted every six months or whenever a player joins a training camp.

Unlike the earlier approach, the revised programme prescribes individual training loads based on Bronco results, with players expected to train according to their specific fitness levels instead of following a generic workload.