India’s mounting injury problems have prompted the BCCI to overhaul fitness standards at its Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, with uniform benchmarks being introduced as the board reassesses how players are tested, prepared and cleared for selection. According to a report by The Times of India, the review has also brought Team India Physio Kamlesh Jain under scrutiny over repeated player breakdowns and concerns about overall fitness standards.
The intervention comes during a difficult period for India’s player availability. Jasprit Bumrah will miss the upcoming Test series against Sri Lanka, while injuries have affected multiple red-ball and white-ball options following a demanding international schedule.
Injury problems increase pressure on India’s fitness system
India’s bowling resources have been particularly affected following IPL 2026 and bilateral assignments against Afghanistan, Ireland, England and Zimbabwe. Bumrah suffered a knee injury during the ODI series in England, while Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar are recovering from recent setbacks.
The white-ball side has also been without Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy and Prince Yadav through injury. The accumulation of unavailable players has intensified attention on the processes used to manage workloads and determine whether players are ready to return.
That represents a contrast with India’s experience across three successive ICC tournaments. The team entered the 2023 ODI World Cup, 2024 T20 World Cup and 2025 Champions Trophy with most of its resources available, with Pandya’s ankle injury during the 2023 World Cup the major fitness disruption identified across that period.
BCCI introduces common Bronco and 2K benchmarks
The CoE is now moving towards a standardised system after players had previously been assessed against varying fitness requirements. India shifted its primary fitness assessment after Adrian Le Roux replaced Soham Desai as Strength and Conditioning Coach last year, with the Bronco test taking precedence over the Yo-Yo test without an initial common benchmark across the playing group.
The BCCI medical team has now introduced a base Bronco target of 5.15 to 5.20 minutes, while the CoE has established a nine-to-10-minute benchmark for the 2K run. The Yo-Yo test, which previously served as India’s main fitness assessment, carries a passing benchmark of 16.5.
A BCCI source told The Times of India, “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,”
The Bronco involves five uninterrupted sets of shuttle runs between markers positioned at 20, 40 and 60 metres, with players covering 1,200 metres in total. The 2K test instead assesses endurance by measuring how quickly a player completes a two-kilometre run.
Rana and Siraj cases expose implementation gaps
The move towards uniform standards follows instances in which players arrived at the CoE without clarity over the requirements they would be expected to meet. Contracted players have only recently received the base parameters for the new assessments, creating a gap between the introduction of the fitness regime and players preparing specifically for it.
Mohammed Siraj encountered the revised testing programme before travelling to Sri Lanka. The BCCI source stated, “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,”
Rana’s experience raised a separate question over the standards applied when players were cleared for national duty. Having recently recovered from a knee problem, Rana suffered severe cramps rather than another injury before being sent back to the CoE from England following the third T20I.
The source continued, “The Indian team management flagged that he was overweight by four kgs. The CoE should have been much more vigilant. He has been now told by CoE staff that his weight can’t exceed 96 kgs. He is now 94 kgs and is expected to be cleared next week. But he was 97 kgs when he was cleared to be picked for the Indian team for the UK tour,”
The two cases place different parts of the system under focus: establishing transparent fitness requirements before players arrive for assessment and applying those requirements consistently when determining readiness for selection.
Testing intensity raises workload questions
Standardising fitness thresholds addresses one part of the CoE’s programme, but the frequency and intensity of testing have also emerged as issues. India’s previous system placed greater emphasis on identifying individual physical pressure points and regulating workloads around them, rather than repeatedly putting players through multiple assessments.
The BCCI source added, “Now, a player at CoE is made to take a 2K test and Bronco test more frequently besides the Yo-Yo test which burns out players. Earlier, it was about maintaining certain fitness marks for players without burning them out with fitness regimes. Yo-Yo tests were designed to be taken in six months or if a player is coming back from injury. The other management had made notes of pressure points for each player and accordingly regulated the workload. Now, the players are just pushed to do extreme fitness programmes,”
The challenge for the CoE therefore extends beyond defining a passing score. The changes are being introduced against a backdrop in which India must balance minimum fitness requirements with the physical demands already being placed on players across formats.
Team India physio comes under scrutiny
Alongside questions about the CoE programme, the BCCI and team management have questioned Jain over the repeated breakdown of players and the broader condition of the squad. Concerns have also extended to cramping and players’ mobility during matches.
The BCCI source noted, “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 seen that the mobility of some of the players in 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,”
The scrutiny places responsibility not only on testing standards but also on how fitness concerns are identified and communicated across the Indian setup. The introduction of common benchmarks gives the medical and fitness teams defined base parameters as the BCCI seeks greater consistency in assessing players.
Deep Dasgupta highlights rare preparation window
India will have an opportunity to prepare for its next assignment without the same compressed turnaround that accompanied recent series. The team arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, providing 10 days before the opening Test on August 15, with a three-day warm-up match in Colombo also forming part of the build-up.
Former India Cricketer Deep Dasgupta said on his YouTube channel, “In my opinion, this is a dream preparation for Team India; now how they use this time is an entirely different thing. If we compare the preparations with the Ireland and England tour, that wasn’t ideal; that was like firefighting,”
Recent transitions between formats had given India less preparation time while injuries repeatedly changed the pool of available players. Dasgupta added, “Players were getting injured, players were unavailable. Just as you set a playing XI, someone or the other gets injured, then they have to change it. It will be rare that India gets 10-15 days to prepare for a series,”
India will now use that extended window ahead of the two-Test Sri Lanka series while the BCCI moves towards uniform Bronco and 2K standards at the CoE. The changes leave the board addressing both sides of its current fitness challenge: establishing consistent criteria for player readiness while managing the workloads of a squad that has experienced repeated injury disruptions.
