Pak cricketers undergo fitness assessment in Kakul

ISLAMABAD: The fitness camp for the national cricket team’s probables has started at the Kakul PT School (Abbottabad) under the watchful eyes of Army’s physical instructors with three leading players likely to report on Wednesday.

Babar Azam, Naseem Shah, and Iftikhar Ahmed, who performed Umrah just recently, are expected to return today (Wednesday).‘They are likely to join the physical training camp, straight on their return from Saudi Arabia. Most probably the three would be with the other members of the team on Wednesday,’ one of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) officials when contacted told ‘The News‒.

The opening day (Tuesday) was more focused on assessment of the cricketers with all going through the required procedures set forth by the trainers.

‘The assessment of each cricketer was conducted to know his basic physical fitness standards. This is the normal procedure before going ahead with the training. Some cricketers may be fit enough to come through rigorous training head high while others required to make extra efforts to catch up with the best.’

The official added that the camp that will continue till April 8 has nothing to do with cricketing or technical aspects. ‘The trainers mostly from PT School Abbottabad will focus on helping the players to get fit and ready for the heavy international schedule coming up.’

It is believed that the trainers will focus on improving the stamina of players so that they could be in a position to perform consistently throughout their stay on the field.

Sports has gone professional with cricket not far behind. ‘To maintain a relatively high standards of fitness there is a dire need to work on the fitness of these probables for national team so that they could stay fit and focus to fulfill technical requirements of the game. A fit player can perform to his abilities on the field, in bowling, and even in batting,’ the official added.