Mohammad Hafeez: “The trainer told me, six months ago, the management and captain had instructed me not to prioritise fitness and not to check the fitness of the players, and [to] let them play their natural game”
Image taken by: Bimal Mirwani
Former Pakistan team director and interim head coach Mohammad Hafeez has accused star batsman Babar Azam of refusing to prioritise players’ fitness.
He noted that the national team’s trainer informed him that Azam and the team management wanted the players to “play their natural game” instead of worrying about where their fitness levels were at.
As a result, Hafeez noticed a disturbing trend, whereby the fat level of cricketers within the team surpassed “almost twice the standard level.”
“When we reached Australia, I spoke to the team, the captain (Babar Azam), and the management and told them to prioritise fitness. I asked the trainer about the standards of fitness which are being followed. But the trainer told me, six months ago, the management and captain had instructed me not to prioritise fitness and not to check the fitness of the players, and [to] let them play their natural game,” he was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
“After six months when I observed them, the fat level, which plays an important role in the international level of the players, had transcended almost twice the standard level.”
Azam has been slowly trying to get back in form after going through a rough patch for a few months.
He scored 126 runs at an average of 21 in Pakistan’s three-match Test series against Australia before going on to make 213 runs in a five-match T20I series against New Zealand, which included three half-centuries, at an average of 42.60 and a strike-rate of 142.
Currently, he is captaining the Peshawar Zalmi in the 2024 Pakistan Super League (PSL) and has amassed 330 runs in six matches, which includes a century and two fifties, at an average of 66 and a strike-rate of 150.68.
Peshawar Zalmi Squad for PSL 9: Babar Azam (captain), Rovman Powell, Saim Ayub, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Asif Ali, Mohammad Haris, Aamer Jamal, Naveen-ul-Haq, Khurram Shahzad, Salman Irshad, Arif Yaqoob, Umair Afridi, Dan Mousley, Haseebullah Khan, Mohammad Zeeshan, Mehran Mumtaz, Luke Wood, Sufiyan Muqeem, Waqar Salamkheil, Arshad Iqbal, Gus Atkinson, Shamar Joseph
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