'Bronco Test is implemented to rule Rohit Sharma out of team' - Manoj Tiwary's honest take on BCCI's fitness and selection criteria [Exclusive]

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has introduced a Rugby-inspired Bronco Test for all of its players to be eligible for selection in the Indian team based on fitness. While the fitness standards in the Indian team have always been high in the last couple of decades, former cricketer Manoj Tiwary believes that certain senior players in the team may not be able to meet the fitness criteria set by the Bronco Test.

During an exclusive interview with CricTracker, Tiwary opened up to give his honest opinion on the senior cricketer and ODI team captain Rohit Sharma. The Howrah-born believes that Rohit will not be able to pass the Bronco Test, since he does not give a lot of importance on his physical fitness. He further opined that the BCCI has introduced the test in order to rule Rohit out of the team, which will break his dreams to play the 2027 World Cup.

Excerpts

There’s a lot of chatter around when Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli might step away from ODIs. How do you see their role in India’s short-term future?

I think it will be very difficult to keep out Virat Kohli from the plans for 2027 World Cup. But I have a doubt that they are going to look at Rohit Sharma into the scheme of things because… See, I'm a very keen observer what things are going on in Indian cricket. And I believe this Bronco Test, which was introduced a few days back, I think it is for the players like Rohit Sharma and someone who I believe they don't want them to be part of the team in future. And that's why it has been introduced.

And you know, Bronco Test will be one of the toughest fitness test parameters which has been introduced by the Indian cricket. But the only question is, why now? Why not when your new head coach got the assignment from the very first series? Whose idea is it? Who introduced this? Who enforced this Bronco Test a few days back? So it is a question for which I don't have an answer, but the observation says that it is going to be difficult for Rohit Sharma if he doesn't work really hard on his fitness. And I think he will be stopped at the Bronco Test.

I think it has been brought in, obviously, to set the fitness parameter at the highest level, but also I believe it has been introduced to keep a few players out, as like what happened when our Indian great legends like Gambhir, Sehwag, and Yuvraj, and others were doing really well. And after we became champions in 2011, the yo-yo test came into the forefront. So a lot of things that go behind the same. And this is my observation. Let's see what happens. The future will definitely give me answers.

Who is your pick as the next Indian ODI captain after Rohit Sharma?

After Rohit Sharma, obviously, I would say Shreyas Iyer, because the way he has led, wherever he has led in the franchise cricket, I have not seen him in the first-class cricket, but he has got a trophy as well for Mumbai in domestic as well. But when I was doing commentary, where I have observed the evaluation of Shreyas Iyer as the captain, and when you see he's one of the captain who leads from the front, he scores a lot of runs, and he leads, and he makes great decisions on feed, which is a must for a good captain, and he does that with good success, which we have seen in KKR tenure.

In 2024, KKR emerged champions, where he was a captain, but he didn't get the credit which he was supposed to get. Now, the PR runs in such a way that the credit is given to only one individual in the team. I felt that he should have also got the credit, along with Chandrakant Pandit, and Bharat Arun as well. They were also the supporting staff, the leader who takes the call on field.

He's the one who should get most recognition, but it didn't happen. But the way, again, he led Punjab to the finals, although they were missed out of the finals becoming the champion. But the way he led, silently and not making a big sound about his captaincy, he quietly captained the scene like a leader. 

And whenever we hear an interview of the fellow teammates of Punjab Kings, all of them have praised him a lot with his leadership skills. I feel Shreyas Iyer will eventually lead Team India, and he will lead for a long period of time. But at the same time, he will be fighting this captaincy battle with Shubman Gill because the current coach, Gautam Gambhir, likes Shubman Gill more than Shreyas Iyer. So there will be a fight. But let's see what happens, what the future unfolds for all of us.

What’s your take on the “star culture” in Indian cricket, where some players get endless chances while others are dropped after 1–2 failures?

I don't think it's about the star culture, which is giving more opportunities to an X player and fewer opportunities to a Y player. I don't think so. That is the case. Star culture is different and giving opportunity, fair opportunity, is something which is completely different. Like I said earlier in my interview that liking and disliking is pretty strong in Indian cricket. It is not now, it is from long period of time. We have seen when there was a south captain, a long time back, I'm saying in Indian history, there were left-arm spinners who used to come up only from south.

And despite, if you remember one name, Utpal Chatterjee from West Bengal, from Bengal cricket team, I doubt many of them will remember him but this individual has got more than 500 wickets in the first-class cricket, and he was so accurate. He was taken to Sharjah as well. He pulled really well. And after that, He was not given more opportunity, but that's the way it runs. If a captain is from a certain zone, they prefer their zone players. And also certain captains are who will always prefer someone from their own state than the other zone.

So liking and disliking is very strong in team India, and that's the way it has always been. And that is the way players get an opportunity sometimes. But the introduction of social media in the universe, which has helped to curb this liking and disliking to a certain bit, because earlier, nothing used to come into the social media. So a lot of injustice used to happen. It used to get under the carpet.

But nowadays, the performances are in the people's eye. Cricket fans can see by themselves in social media or in the live game. So it is difficult to keep everyone out of the equation. That is the advantage the modern day cricketers have. Once they perform, they are very much sure injustice will not happen to them. Media and individual PRs of players are very strong. Moreover social media is there and cricket fans are there to highlight their performances.