'We Will Compete': Indian Hockey Star Manpreet Singh Issues Fitness Challenge to Virat Kohli

Following Virat Kohli’s praise for Indian hockey players’ fitness, former captain Manpreet Singh invited Kohli and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru for a joint training session and fitness showdown, highlighting respect between cricket and hockey and Yo-Yo test standards.

Former India hockey captain and veteran midfielder Manpreet Singh has extended a friendly but competitive invitation to the Indian batting stalwart Virat Kohli and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) squad for a joint training session and a fitness showdown.

The challenge by Manpreet came after Kohli lauded the fitness standards of the Indian hockey players, candidly admitting that cricketers are "not even 15%" as fit as their hockey counterparts. Speaking at the third edition of the RCB Innovation Lab Summit, the veteran batter bluntly remarked that the hockey players would laugh at watching the training sessions of Indian cricketers.

“If hockey players watched our training sessions, they'd probably laugh because their sport demands far more physically," Kohli said.

Virat Kohli, who himself is considered one of the fittest athletes in world cricket, has often spoken about how he structures his training to maintain elite endurance. However, the former Team India and RCB captain remains humble about the physical requirements of his sport compared to the high-intensity, end-to-end nature of field hockey, which requires a sustained aerobic capacity throughout a 60-minute match.

Manpreet Sends Fitness Challenge Invitation to Kohli and RCB

The veteran hockey midfielder, Manpreet Singh, was quite impressed by the sportsmanlike spirit and mutual respect by Indian batting icon Virat Kohli, who lauded the intense discipline and physical benchmarks of the national hockey squad.

In an interview with RevzSports, Manpreet invited Kohli as well as the entire RCB squad to join the Indian national hockey team for a joint training session.

“Obviously. We want to invite Virat and the entire RCB team to come and do a training session with us. We will compete against each other,” a former Indian hockey captain told Boria Majumdar.

The Indian hockey players undergo certain training sessions and fitness tests, including Yo-Yo, which the Indian cricket team adopted during Virat Kohli’s captaincy stint to establish a new, stringent benchmark for player fitness and selection eligibility.

In cricket, players are expected to score between 16 and 18, while the hockey players regularly clear the 20-point mark, with many outfield players consistently achieving this figure, a benchmark that remains testimony to their extreme aerobic demands required to sustain performance in high-intensity, end-to-end field hockey matches.

‘Cricket Is Also Difficult’

Though Manpreet Singh extended a fitness challenge invite to Virat Kohli and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the former Indian hockey captain admitted cricket is also an incredibly challenging sport that demands its own unique skill set.

"If you look, their game is also difficult. The ball comes so fast. If you ask us to bat, that will be difficult too. The ball comes in at 150 kph speed, and that is also difficult,” Manpreet said.

“His game's requirement is different, and ours is too. His is about eye contact, batting, position, and other things," he added.

During the captaincy tenure of Virat Kohli, Indian cricketers were mandated to clear the Yo-Yo test as a compulsory fitness requirement to be eligible for national team selection, a policy that significantly elevated the physical standards within the squad.

The captain-coach duo of Kohli and Ravi Shastri was instrumental in ensuring that centrally contracted players were required to stringent fitness standards, with the Yo-Yo test becoming a mandatory parameter for selection into the national team.