Former captain and head coach Misbah-ul-Haq raised a question regarding the fitness of the Pakistani team.
Misbah is recently working as an analyst for local media channel for the T20 World Cup and was asked related to the fitness difference between his time period and the current.
Former captain stated, “Clear cut, fitness issues are visible, Waqar left four times [as coach], I left once. Players like myself, Shoaib Malik, and Younus Khan were quite into fitness, and we used to push ourselves. Those who push others out of their limitations are not considered good trainers nor good coaches.”
He said that player’s tummies are visible, their lower are heavy which create difficulty in moving. The basic reason behind this is that no fitness test are being conducted, there is no benchmark.
He showed his concern that it should be standardized at both the levels i.e international and domestic.
“Fitness test level during domestic season becomes a joke. We used to have arguments that we used to say that the standard used for the international level must be used for the domestic level as well. The responsible people at the domestic level always opposed us related to fitness.”
It must be noted that Misbah served as head coach of Pakistan men’s team from September 2019 to September 2021 where Waqar Younis worked as a bowling coach under him.
