What had so far been an inspired return to the India limited-over side, Ambati Rayudu is in danger of coming undone after the batsman reportedly failed a Yo-Yo test on Friday.
The 32-year-old has not played for India ever since the ODI series against Zimbabwe in 2016 and it looked like the batsman’s international career was all but over with new youngsters emerging in the last two years.
However, a stupendous individual campaign for IPL champions Chennai Super Kings saw Rayudu being given a recall to the India side for the limited-overs clashes for the tour of England.
According to a report by the Times of India, all of that could now be moot with the batsman in danger of being axed from the squad after failing the compulsory test held at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
Rayudu had returned to the team following an inspired IPL.
Similar to the beep test, the Yo-Yo test has been set as the new benchmark for gauging the fitness and stamina levels of Indian players for some time now. Rayudu is the third player to fail the test this season after pacer Mohammed Shami and batsman Sanju Samson had been unable to clear the minimum threshold of 16.1 set by the management.
While Shami had lost out on a place in the squad for the recently concluded Test against Afghanistan, Samson had been dropped from India A’s tour of England.
MS Dhoni and skipper Virat Kohli too reportedly took the test on Friday with both the stalwarts said to have cleared it with ease.
In 16 matches for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL this year, Rayudu managed to score 602 runs at an average of 43 and a strike-rate of nearly 150.