Yuvraj Singh's international career could be over after failing Yo-Yo test yet again

What's the story?

The infamous Yo-Yo test which had claimed the careers of several Indian cricketers recently has added another victim to its list. News has emerged that Yuvraj Singh, 35, has failed the test, meaning his international comeback will have to be put on ice.

In case you didn't know...

Recently, the BCCI made Yo-Yo tests mandatory in an attempt to ensure only the fittest players of the lot are available for national team selection. The tests replaced the beep tests which were in place earlier.

The heart of the matter

Yuvraj reportedly took the test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore on Tuesday. While the benchmark set was 16.1, Yuvraj failed to meet that by a narrow margin, according to BCCI sources.

Yuvraj and Suresh Raina had failed the test earlier in the year as well, just before India's tour of Sri Lanka, meaning they were not named in the squad that eventually went on to whitewash the hosts across formats.

Meanwhile, Cheteshwar Pujara, who took the test with Yuvraj, has passed. Earlier, Ravichandran Ashwin too announced that he had passed the test in a Twitter post.

What's next?

The BCCI are expected to set Yuvraj a deadline within which he could appear for the test again. However, with the new standards of fitness and endurance being set, it is unlikely that Yuvraj would clear the test in the future as well.

For now, he has to remain content playing in the domestic circles. He has been named in Punjab's side to square off against Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy starting today (Oct 14).

Author's take

It's so near, yet so far for Yuvraj, the darling of the masses, whose career seemed to have tailed off after an astonishing comeback earlier this year.

A cancer survivor and a fighter par excellence, the 36-year-old's path to another national return seems laden with landmines, and India has perhaps seen the last of one of its most gifted batsmen.