Pakistan bowling legend and current bowling coach Waqar Younis believes that his team is not far behind India captain Virat Kohli in terms of fitness. Kohli is known as one of the fittest cricketers all over the world. A look at Kohli’s Instagram account shows how dedicated he is towards this aspect of the game. Kohli’s fitness mantra has been adopted by the entire Indian team and by other teams as well. From India’s fielding coach R Sridhar to former physio Patrick Farhart, all have praised the Indian captain on his fitness.
Even Waqar himself has acknowledged the same in an interview last month, in which he had said that Kohli has brought a difference to the sport with his dedication towards fitness.
“Virat Kohli has evolved the game and all the formats of the modern-day cricket including T20 Cricket, one day suits him a lot and he is brilliant at test matches. But the biggest difference he brought to cricket that is followed and watched worldwide is his fitness,” Younis had said while interacting with fans on the Twitter platform @GloFansOfficial.
“He has set a bar of fitness worldwide, for players, I think it is hard to beat. I think for that reason also, you like everything about Virat Kohli. He is fit, he is always in your face, he wants to prove you that he is the best, he is a fighter, so that is why, we all like him,” the former paceman had added.
{{/usCountry}}“He has set a bar of fitness worldwide, for players, I think it is hard to beat. I think for that reason also, you like everything about Virat Kohli. He is fit, he is always in your face, he wants to prove you that he is the best, he is a fighter, so that is why, we all like him,” the former paceman had added.
{{/usCountry}}Now, in a virtual interaction with media persons this month, Younis was asked if Pakistan players can match up to Kohli’s levels of fitness.
In his response, the former Pakistan bowler said: “There is no doubt that there are too many cricketers who are fit. There are three formats when you play all three formats you have to maintain fitness standards. He (Virat) is one of the top athletes in the country. Our boys are not behind.”
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“You take Babar Azam, he is very fit. He is also delivering goods. Shaheen Shah Afridi is super fit. We will set our own bar, we not copy someone else. We will set the bar that suits Pakistan cricket and will take the team forward,” Waqar added.
“But right now in the training camp they are getting better and we are working hard on ensuring their fitness levels meet those standards required in world cricket,” he further said.
Pakistan will play 3 Tests and 3 T20Is against England with the first Test set to begin from August 5th in Manchester.