India vs England: Rahul Tewatia fails to clear the fitness test ahead of T20I series

When India’s squad for the T20I series against England came on the table, some cricketers bagged their much-awaited call-up. Rajasthan Royals’ skipper Rahul Tewatia was one among them, and he had expressed his sheer happiness over the maiden call from India. However, things have not been going smooth for him lately, as he failed to clear the fitness test ahead of the commencement of the T20I series.

Tewatia bagged the call from Team India owing to his class performance with both bat and ball in the 2020 season of the IPL. However, as per the latest reports by The Telegraph, both Tewatia and mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy performed well below the fitness levels expected by national players.

As per BCCI’s new parameter of fitness, a player either needs to score 17:1 in the Yo-Yo Test or cover 2Km in the time frame of 8.3 minutes. It has become essential for players to qualify either of the parameters to be eligible to get included in the squad. However, things don’t end for both the players here as they will be given another chance to perform up to the mark. A source stated that players are given one more chance if they don’t meet the expectations in 1st attempt.

“It has been introduced to push fitness standards and maintain endurance. He will get more than one chance,” the source added.

Rahul Tewatia had an impressive run in IPL 2020

National selectors and team management will have their final call on the same players after National Cricket Academy will inform about player’s latest developments. It is a known fact that Tewatia rose to fame after flaunting his skills in the last edition of the IPL. His unbeaten knock of 53 runs against KXIP (now PBKS) helped RR have an improbable victory. He stunned the fans by hitting Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over.

In the 2020 edition of IPL, Tewatia scored 22 runs at an average of 42.50, striking 140. Talking of the bowling department, he took 10- wickets at an impressive economy of 7.08. It will be a thing to see how the all-rounder and spinner perform in their next fitness test.