Indian superstar cricketer Virat Kohli is not only a cricketing idol, but for his fans, he is also a fitness icon. Someone who inspires them to remain fit and keep working on their physical health.
Virat Kohli is one of the fittest athletes in the world. That can be attested from the fact that he’s rarely missed matches for India or for RCB in the IPL because of injuries. One piece of statistic recently revealed that Virat Kohli has only missed 12 matches for India due to injury in his entire career that started in 2008.
4-5 years after his international debut, realizing the growing importance of fitness and stamina to become a world-beating cricket, Virat Kohli put extra focus on his training and diet. Once a chubby Chole-Bhature loving teenager, the Delhi lad turned into a fitness freak and spent more time in the gym and on the field training on his skillset than anyone else, and cut down all the fast and junk food and anything that hurt his health to become a toned, lean, muscular athlete who now the world revers.
Virat Kohli certainly inspired his teammates as created a force of a team with most of the players with six-pack abs and fit bodies. Under Kohli’s captaincy tenure, very few cricketers missed matches due to their fitness issues. The biggest benefactor and example of Kohli’s inspiration was Mohammed Shami.
Shami often used to miss matches due to injuries under Dhoni, but Kohli changed it all and made Shami into one of the most consistent Test match bowlers of his era.
Kohli introduced the Yo-Yo test into the Indian team, and made it mandatory for all players to clear it to be eligbile for selection. There was no respite for anyone. Big name players like Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu were even left out of the side after their failed the yo-yo test.
For the Indian team, the minimum score for a player to have under Kohli’s tenure was 16.1 To set an example for others, Kohli himself recorded a good yo-yo test score of 19.
However, there are a few players who have recorded even a highest yo-yo test score than Virat Kohli! Yes.
Here are 5 players who have a better yo-yo test score than even Virat Kohli:
Manish Pandey – 19.2
Manish Pandey is one of the best fielders India have had. And that is evident by his yo-yo test score of a whopping 19.2, higher than Virat’s 19.
Pandey has not been picked in the Indian team for the last two years.
Mayank Agarwal – 20.1
Test opener Mayank Agarwal had a brilliant yo-yo test score of 20.1 when he entered the Indian side under Kohli. Agarwal’s yo-yo test score of 20.1 is reported to be the highest an Indian player has ever recorded.
Ahmed Banday – 19.4
Ahmed Banday is a 28-year-old batsman from Jammu and Kashmir. He has featured in 21 first-class matches for J&K, averaging 26 with the bat.
Ahmed Banday is known to have scored 19.4 on the yo yo test.
Mayank Dagar – 19.3
An uncapped player from Himachal Pradesh, Mayank Dagar once posted an Instagram story of his Yo-Yo score that read 19.3, surpassing 19 of Virat.
A left-arm finger spinner, Dagar made his IPL debut in IPL 2023, playing 3 games for SRH. Dagar played in the 2016 Under-19 World Cup where India reached the final.
Hardik Pandya >19
India’s current white-ball vice-captain and superstar all-rounder Hardik Pandya has elevated his fitness levels to a few notches in recent times, and he often flaunts his fit body and six-pack abs on social media. Pandya is learned to have scored over 19 in the yo yo test.
