Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma ace fitness test for Asia Cup preparations

Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah pass the pre-season fitness test ahead of the Asia Cup, with Gill named vice-captain. Rohit may also play for India A against Australia A

Bengaluru: Indian cricketers, including Test skipper Shubman Gill and ODI captain Rohit Sharma, have cleared the pre-season fitness test conducted at the BCCI Centre of Excellence here.

Gill will travel to Dubai soon for the Asia Cup, starting on September 9, and his teammates Jasprit Bumrah and Jitesh Sharma too have passed the fitness parameters. The 25-year-old Punjab batter was named India’s vice-captain for the T20 tournament.

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A fitness test became mandatory for Gill as he had to pull out of the Duleep Trophy, where he was named the North Zone captain, due to a fever. He had been resting at his hometown for the last few days.

PTI understands that other players who went through the test at the CoE without any alarm were Mohammed Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Washington Sundar, and Shardul Thakur.

Apart from the now standard Yo-Yo test, a DXA Scan, which is a simplified method to test bone density, was also done during the fitness test.

Both Jaiswal and Washington are in the standby list for the continental showpiece, while Thakur will remain in the city to lead the West Zone in the Duleep Trophy semifinal against Central Zone from September 4.

While Rohit does not have any immediate assignments after his retirement from Test and T20 formats, the senior batter could travel to Australia for an ODI series in November. Before that, he may also appear for India A against Australia A in three one-day matches at Kanpur on September 30, October 3, and 5.

The confirmation for that is yet to come, but Rohit is likely to stay back in the city for a few more days to train at the CoE.

Other members of the Asia Cup squad, such as Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, and Riyan Parag (standby), have played in the Duleep Trophy quarterfinals for their respective Zonal teams, and there could not be a separate fitness test for them now.

Wicketkeeper batter Dhruv Jurel, who is also among the standby players, had to skip the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal because of a groin niggle.

However, the Central Zone skipper, who was replaced at the helm by Rajat Patidar against NorthEast Zone, is still under the monitoring of the medical team.