Where do you stand on the statement “Virat instilled fitness culture in Indian cricket”

[maniac]

prominent names who have had poor fitness or injury issues  : Ashwin,Pujara, Rohit ,Bhuvi, Sir Don Pandya, KL Rahul,Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar.

 

Rahane: always had the same level of fitness. In fact I don’t recollect Rahane ever being injured. It’s another thing he doesn’t last long enough on the crease for us to assess his fitness but he is a livewire on the field so there is that.

 

Dhawan: another guy I have only seen injured due to some freak on field accident rather than poor fitness. Just like Rahane always had the same level of fitness from what I remember.

 

Jadeja: this guy was an A grade athlete the day he stepped on a cricket field. Has nothing to do with Kohli.

 

Umesh Yadav : see above.

 

Here are some names I can think of who definitely have improved on their fitness

 

Bumrah: he used to be a comedy fielder when he started. Look at him now.

 

Shami bhai: aging like fine wine.

 

Lord Shardul Thakur: This guy had overweight issues throughout his career. He used to break down a lot at the start of his career. From there to his transformation to Lord Thakur definitely took a lot of work and off field support too. 

 

So where do you stand on this?

 

 

 

 

[ravishingravi]

Yeah but I think mental fitness was much higher of earlier teams. 

[maniac]

By the way my “NO” is not to hate on Virat. I respect his fitness standards. I just think with all formats + IPL breaks the best down anyways. It seems more like individual responsibility and effort than any kind of culture. It worked for some and it didn’t for others.

[AuxiliA]

He certainly was more vocal about it and led by example. That's praiseworthy. But I don't think any 1 person can claim to be the Messiah of fitness revolution in Indian cricket. It was a gradual process. Dhoni and Kapil were fitter than Kohli btw. 

 

 

[Clarke]

Yeah sure, coz his predecessors in Sachin, Dravid or Sehwag/Laxman not have fitness culture. The 24 years of international cricket or the 10k runs or the triple centuries etc were meaningless in comparison to the gym workout videos. 

 

 

Edited January 17, 2022 by Clarke

[vvvslaxman]

We had numerous vadapavs in his regime too. 

[Vijy]

led by example perhaps, but not everyone adopted the same example.

[vvvslaxman]

6 minutes ago, Clarke said:

Yeah sure, coz his predecessors in Sachin, Dravid or Sehwag/Laxman not have fitness culture. The 24 years of international cricket or the 10k runs or the triple centuries etc were meaningless in comparison to the gym workout videos. 

 

 

 

Actually Dravid had an incredible fitness routine and diet. He would measure the amount of salt that gets drained and replace with that. Just that gym workout is passed as fitness requirement. Yes it helps strengthen your muscles. But real fitness is flexibility as any Tennis superstars would testify.  IN order to be injury free you have to be very flexible.

[Vijy]

16 minutes ago, vvvslaxman said:

 

Actually Dravid had an incredible fitness routine and diet. He would measure the amount of salt that gets drained and replace with that. Just that gym workout is passed as fitness requirement. Yes it helps strengthen your muscles. But real fitness is flexibility as any Tennis superstars would testify.  IN order to be injury free you have to be very flexible.

Dravid was the most "flexible" of them all, in his generation of Ind players, both on the cricket field and off it.

[nevada]

Kohli might be very fit but he sucks in fielding dropping quite a few catches. Just because he looks thin and is a gym rat that doesn't mean he has brought about a fitness revolution. Fitness culture has been around since the time of John Wright's coaching tenure. 

 

[mishra]

Kohli used this fitness BS to settle personal scores or hide deteoriation of Indian batting under his insidious leadership.  In 2004, Indian team scored 704/7 declared against great aussie attack in Australia.Here is scorecard just to refresh icfers memory.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/india-tour-of-australia-2003-04-62294/australia-vs-india-4th-test-64062/full-scorecard

 

watch it, let it sink in, and then u understand why I have been against Kohli since 2017, the year i call downward trend of batting started.

[Vancouver]

I think Sachin is the fittest modern Indian cricketer. He used to bat with a really heavy bat, was one of the fastest runner between wickets, a superb outfielder. His longevity is a testament to his fitness. 

 

Kaif and UV are also underrated, before arrival of these 2 in Indian team, fans used to look up to Jonty, Gibbs, Ponting.

 

But overall I think Kapil Dev was epitome of fitness. Fitness is not just looking like a skinny wrestler, styling a beard in a way to hide weak chin and to elongate face to look slim etc. Likes of Kohli and KL would be portrayed as Mughal villains in 90s Bollywood. Real fitness is staying injury free throughout a long career.

 

Then there are players who have -

Poor body language due to defeatist attitude - Most Indian players before Ganguly. This happens when you don't have faith in your abilities.

Lazy attitude (Sehwag), see difference in his running between wickets when he opened with Sachin vs when Sachin was not on other end. He needed a constant kick up his backside. His laziness reflects in his tweets also, blabbers without doing any research. 

General lack of flexibility (Laxman). Some people have rigid bodies.

[MechEng]

In fact I would say that Bumrah and Hardik Pandya are over-fit or too fit. They get injured frequently because they have only muscle and virtually no body fat.

 

@express bowling mentioned somewhere that Bumrah didn't get bounce due to some torn abdomen muscle but Thakur was getting bounce.

 

Thakur doesn't have speed because he's overweight but he can bowl the effort ball and get bounce off the pitch because the extra fat protects the sudden jerks his muscles receive 

[nevada]

1 hour ago, Vancouver said:

I think Sachin is the fittest modern Indian cricketer. He used to bat with a really heavy bat, was one of the fastest runner between wickets, a superb outfielder. His longevity is a testament to his fitness. 

 

Kaif and UV are also underrated, before arrival of these 2 in Indian team, fans used to look up to Jonty, Gibbs, Ponting.

 

But overall I think Kapil Dev was epitome of fitness. Fitness is not just looking like a skinny wrestler, styling a beard in a way to hide weak chin and to elongate face to look slim etc. Likes of Kohli and KL would be portrayed as Mughal villains in 90s Bollywood. Real fitness is staying injury free throughout a long career.

 

Then there are players who have -

Poor body language due to defeatist attitude - Most Indian players before Ganguly. This happens when you don't have faith in your abilities.

Lazy attitude (Sehwag), see difference in his running between wickets when he opened with Sachin vs when Sachin was not on other end. He needed a constant kick up his backside. His laziness reflects in his tweets also, blabbers without doing any research. 

General lack of flexibility (Laxman). Some people have rigid bodies.

Laxman was not a model of fitness but he was very good at slip catching. Today's "fit" stars shell catches as frequently as a nariyal wallah shells coconuts!

[diga]

Did not Kumble get a lot of flak for increasing the requirements for YoYo test during his coaching tenure?  In general, the whole domestic cricket is moving towards better fitness culture

[sorak]

4 hours ago, mishra said:

Kohli used this fitness BS to settle personal scores or hide deteoriation of Indian batting under his insidious leadership.  In 2004, Indian team scored 704/7 declared against great aussie attack in Australia.Here is scorecard just to refresh icfers memory.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/india-tour-of-australia-2003-04-62294/australia-vs-india-4th-test-64062/full-scorecard

 

watch it, let it sink in, and then u understand why I have been against Kohli since 2017, the year i call downward trend of batting started.

Yup. I always had a nagging feeling that he realized this decline way ahead of any one of us and probably thought it fit to amp up his own fitness standards as a way to keep scoring.

[ShoonyaSifar]

Improved focus on player fitness - most definitely and Kohli deserves all the praise for leading by example on that aspect. All those pics of players posting their workout videos, flaunting six packs and stories of them being diet conscious till around 2018-19 were super positive for the Indian cricket. It also inspired million of people to hit the gym.

 

But as the obsession on gyms, muscles and six packs hardly led to any visible improvement in ground fielding and catching, the trend within the team soon died down. With Covid, bubble life and the blessings of Shastriji, players were allowed a lot more leeway which shows up on many of them having bellies for nearly 12 months now. But that takes nothing away from Kohli's obsession on fitness and diets. I wish Indian cricket system could adopt his fitness obsession whole heartedly across all levels.

 

An athlete has to be physically fit and agile and not have pot bellies like so many in our current team have got, which is hampering them from achieving their absolute best. How Rohit Sharma, himself the pioneer of pot bellies in the current team, handles this as the captain will be interesting to see. Maybe it'll be left to Drvaid, who still looks super fit, to motive the players to remain in shape. 

[Ashraf_]

Kohli definitely played a role but I think Yuvraj Singh was the first to do so.

[Stan AF]

5 hours ago, Vancouver said:

Likes of Kohli and KL would be portrayed as Mughal villains in 90s Bollywood. Real fitness is staying injury free throughout a long career.

 

 

Then there are players who have -

Poor body language due to defeatist attitude - Most Indian players before Ganguly. This happens when you don't have faith in your abilities.

Lazy attitude (Sehwag), see difference in his running between wickets when he opened with Sachin vs when Sachin was not on other end. He needed a constant kick up his backside. His laziness reflects in his tweets also, blabbers without doing any research. 

General lack of flexibility (Laxman). Some people have rigid bodies.

[rkt.india]

You are confusing injuries with fitness. You can be fit but can still get injured. Fitness and injuries are not comparable. Like pandya got back stress fracture, which  has nothing to do with fitness. Fitness helps in maintaining intensity on the ground.

Edited January 18, 2022 by rkt.india