As the Pakistan senior men’s national team prepares for their series at home against Bangladesh, attention has turned to player fitness. This topic became a significant point of debate before the T20 World Cup when the team trained at an Army camp. Now, as they gear up for the Test series against Bangladesh, the fitness of the players is once again a topic of conversation. Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has identified the three players in the squad who he believes are the fittest. Interestingly, his list does not include the white-ball captain, Babar Azam.
Salman Butt has chosen Shan Masood, Fakhar Zaman, and Mohammad Rizwan as the fittest players in the Pakistan squad.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Butt highlighted that these players have shown excellent fitness, regularly scoring well in the Yo-Yo tests and performing strongly in the gym and on the field.
He believes that these three players are among the top ten fittest players in international cricket.
“Not all players are unfit. If you check out some of the players, they rank among the top 10 in fitness worldwide. Take Shan Masood, Fakhar Zaman, and Mohammad Rizwan for example. They’ve scored well in the Yo-Yo Tests, do well in the gym, and perform well on the field,” Butt mentioned in a video on his YouTube channel.
Although he named three Pakistani players as the most fit in international cricket, he still had worries about the general fitness of the team. He mentioned that the training is not progressing as hoped.
Butt explained that due to the lower fitness of some players, the whole team is wrongly seen as unfit, which hides the hard work of the players who are in great shape.
“Progress is not happening as it should. When this occurs, the whole team gets labeled as unfit, and people don’t notice the fit players even though everyone works hard. The whole of Pakistan is discussing the team’s fitness, and it caused a big stir. Younger players were asked to run. This followed comments that players were not fit during the 2024 T20 World Cup. No one questioned the physical trainers, but instead, they made players at the local level work harder on fitness. Those who made mistakes are still there,” the 39-year-old added.
Butt also mentioned that the team management needs to handle the fast bowlers well, making sure they play in the longer version of the game, known as first-class cricket.
“We must take care of our fast bowlers. The issue is that they don’t play the longer version of the game, they don’t participate in first-class cricket, and we don’t play many Test matches. This means things aren’t developing as they should. When this happens, the whole team gets criticized for not being fit, even though all the players work very hard,” Butt concluded.
Fitness will be an important issue as the Pakistan team has a busy schedule this season, starting with a two-Test series against Bangladesh on August 21.
