Sohail Khan: “The reason is that the amount of hard work that Shoaib had put in, no one has. He used to complete 32 rounds in one day; I used to do 10 in a week. He would run on mountains with weights tied [to] his legs and sprint”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Sohail Khan said legendary Pakistan pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar was so successful since he ran up mountains with “weights tied to his legs and sprint”.
Akhtar still holds the record for the fastest ball bowled in international cricket at 161.3 kph (100.2 mph).
The Rawalpindi Express is also arguably the scariest fast bowler to ever play the game, but Sohail noted that Akhtar’s brilliance with the ball stemmed from the hard work he constantly put in off the field.
“The reason is that the amount of hard work that Shoaib had put in, no one has. He used to complete 32 rounds in one day; I used to do 10 in a week. He would run on mountains with weights tied [to] his legs and sprint,” he said on The Nadir Ali podcast as quoted by Cricwick.
The Pakistan team will be back in action in July when they tour Sri Lanka for two Tests, which will be held in Galle and Colombo from July 16 to 28.
Pakistan Squad for Sri Lanka Test Series:Â Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (vc & wk), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Muhammad Huraira, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Noman Ali, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood