Wasim Akram slams fitness level of Pakistan cricket team

Former Pakistan pacer and legendary pacer Wasim Akram lambasted the national men’s cricket team for the below-par fitness standard.

Akram claimed that he was aware that the players were not focusing on fitness for the last two years. He also termed that their dismal performance in this year’s T20 World Cup was also a result of poor fitness.

“I haven’t talked much about this yet, and I don’t have any inside news, but I knew about it two years ago — cricketers aren’t focusing enough on their fitness,” Akram said.

“Now, during the [T20] World Cup, the whole world saw just how good the fitness of our cricket team truly was.”

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Wasim Akram then drew a comparison of the accessibility of information available regarding fitness during his cricket-playing days and today, stating that he would be well aware of it if he was playing currently.

“If I was playing cricket today, I’d have a lot of knowledge about fitness, as it’s now common,” stated Akram.

“During the time we played cricket, information about fitness wasn’t common. We didn’t know much, so we simply followed our seniors like Imran Khan and Javed Miandad. Whatever they did, we did exactly the same.”

Earlier this week, another former Pakistan captain Salman Butt raised concerns regarding the fitness of the national cricket team.

He, however, asserted that not all the players in the Pakistan team are unfit and termed Test captain Shan Masood, Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan the fittest.

“Improvements will be seen in fitness soon. You cannot say all the players are not fit. If you look at some of the players they are among the top 10 players in terms of fitness in World cricket. You can look at Shan Masood, Fakhar Zaman, and Mohammad Rizwan, you look at their fitness, they have achieved good scores in the Yo-Yo Tests. They are good in the gym, they run well on the field,” stated Butt.

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