‘We will compete against each other’: Indian hockey star challenges Virat Kohli, RCB to joint yo-yo test

Manpreet Singh challenged Virat Kohli and the entire team of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to practice and compete in yo-yo together.The Indian hockey midfielder said this during an interview with RevSportz where he was asked about competing against Kohli in a fitness challenge. Considered one of the fittest players in the Indian hockey set-up, Manpreet said he would like the hockey team and the RCB players to train together.“Of course. We want to invite Virat and the entire RCB team to come and train with us. We will compete against each other,” Manpreet said.During the interaction, Manpreet said that hockey and cricket require different skill sets and physical fitness requirements. “Hockey is a very fast game, our speed test is also very fast and the training sessions are very tough. If we talk about the yo-yo test, the goalies have at least 20. In a hockey game, you move from one corner to the other in 2-3 seconds, so to maintain that, our speed, intensity etc. are monitored during our training sessions. Only then can we be fit enough to perform well at the international level.”“If you look, their game is also difficult. The ball is coming so fast. If you ask us to bat, it will also be difficult. The ball is coming at 150 km/h and that is also difficult,” said Manpreet.“The demands of his game are different and so are ours. His is about eye contact, batting, position and other things,” he added.Manpreet’s comments came after Kohli recently spoke about the fitness standards of Indian hockey players during the third annual RCB Innovation Lab Indian Sports Summit.“I know people sometimes look at fitness as something extraordinary, but to me it’s just what the job requires. It should be the norm, not something celebrated as special. Cricket is so paramount in our country that we often overlook other sports.”“To be brutally honest, we are not even 15% of the fitness of an Indian hockey player. If hockey players were watching our training sessions, they would probably laugh because their sport is physically demanding,” Kohli said.Former Indian mental fitness and strategic leadership coach Paddy Upton once said that Kohli would be the only cricketer who could survive a session with the Indian hockey team.