The senior men’s cricket team’s performance has taken a hit lately, raising serious concerns among fans and pundits alike. While the team has been delivering remarkable batting performances, its fielding has seen a major slump in recent times. According to reports, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is unhappy with the declining fielding standards. Additionally, considering the next year’s ICC ODI World Cup 2027 on horizon, the board is planning to develop a new standardized fitness parameter at the Centre of Excellence.
The reason behind the upgrade was players’ poor performance during the England and Ireland tours. During these two series, players dropped a total of 11 catches and in three games in Zimbabwe, they dropped 10 catches. With the serious slump in the performance, as well as a few questionable selections in the team, the BCCI medical team has reportedly decided to come up with a new set of fitness drills, with new benchmarks.
What is Bronco Test? What are the Raising Benchmarks in BCCI’s Fitness Tests?
The Bronco Test is generally a grueling fitness drill, which was introduced in Indian cricket setup last year. While it is considerably simple in structure, the test is considerably tough and is used to measure a player’s fitness levels to sustain high-intensity situations. During this test, four cones are placed at various distances and the player is required to sprint out and back across these distances. Since the cones are placed at 20m, 40m, and 60m away, the single sequence of 240m is counted as one set.
Players are required to complete five sets without any rest in between, covering 1,200 m, and the total time is recorded. The test is followed by a 2k run, and the combination tests aerobic capacity and endurance. The current standards require players to complete a 2k run between nine to ten minutes. As per the Bronco Test, players had to complete it in six minutes, but now, the timing has been reduced to five minutes and 15 seconds.
Speaking about the same, a BCCI source was quoted telling TOI, “The Indian players are not used to the Bronco test. Over the last year, the CoE had set different base parameters for players. It has now emerged that certain senior players were given much comfortable targets to meet to clear fitness tests. The CoE staff had also cleared players like Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy to make sure it was delivering players according to team management's needs.”
