Shahid Afridi: “These guys aren’t happy so Misbah should sit down [with] these senior players and get the trainer who likes to do these fitness tests to attend this session and talk about a plan for fitness”
Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo
Legendary Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has hinted at a potential rift forming between the national player and Misbah-ul-Haq, who is the team’s head coach and chief selector.
Afridi noted that “these guys aren’t happy” with all the fitness tests being conducted on a regular basis.
The 40-year-old also claimed that “the knees of these players aren’t in good shape”.
“Sometimes I don’t understand what’s behind their physical fitness tests, they seem to have tests very often – even as [the] PSL was ending, they were planning tests after [the] PSL but that didn’t happen due to [the] lockdown,” Afridi was quoted as saying by PakPassion.
“A kid who weighs 60kgs is being asked to lift a weight of 120-130kgs which causes his back to break.
“You have some of your top cricketers, who I will not name, [that] have knee problems. So I asked them what’s the issue, they said we are made to train so much and lift so much weight. Every 15 days we have fitness tests.
“These guys aren’t happy so Misbah should sit down [with] these senior players and get the trainer who likes to do these fitness tests to attend this session and talk about a plan for fitness.
“The knees of these players aren’t in good shape and [the] T20 World Cup is coming, these are humans and it’s not like you can replace [their knees like] a car tyre, so let’s fix their fitness.”
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