Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has named three “fittest” players in the Pakistan cricket team ahead of Test series against Bangladesh, scheduled to begin on August 21.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, the former batter voiced concern about the fitness of Pakistani players and said the team’s fitness preparation is not going the way it should have.
However, Butt clarified that not all players are unfit as he named Shan Masood, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman as the “fittest” players in the team and among the top 10 cricketers in the world.
“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 and run well on the field,” he said.
Butt also expressed concern over work management of fast bowlers, saying that they do not play longer format, nor feature in first class cricket.
“Things are not getting developed in the way they should be. When this happens, the entire team is blamed unfit, people won’t look at fit guys even though all the players are hardworking.”
Citing example of Pakistan white-ball captain Babar Azam, he said that maintaining fitness is the players’ responsibility.
“Babar Azam scored truckloads of runs in the last 2 years, he proved his fitness, he ran on the field, and scored runs while batting first as well as second innings. Things should go up but they are getting broken in the middle, which is wrong. So, this is the responsibility of the players to maintain their fitness,” he said.
“The entire Pakistan is talking about the fitness of the team and it brought a storm in Pakistan, players at the junior level were asked to run. This came after people said players weren’t fit in the T20 World Cup 2024. No one questioned the physios or trainers, but instead, they started making players at the district level push hard for fitness. Those who made errors are still there,” he concluded.