The countdown for the high-octane slugfest between the arch-rivals India and Pakistan has begun as they are set to lock horns with each other on October 23 in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022.
Both the teams are toiling hard at the nets and in warm up matches to unleash their best performances in the ‘Mother of all clashes’.
Meanwhile, right ahead of the all-important clash, Pakistan's former skipper and ex-head coach Misbah ul Haq has lambasted Babar Azam & Co.'s fitness standards and said that it becomes no less than a joke during the domestic season. Misbah, who worked as Pakistan's head coach before leaving the job in 2021, has said that there haven't been any fitness tests and there's no benchmark to follow either.
"Clear cut, fitness issues are visible, Waqar left four times [as coach], I left once. Players like myself, Shoaib Malik, and Younis Khan were quite into fitness, and we used to push ourselves. Those who push others out of their limitations are not considered good trainers nor good coaches. Their tummies are visible; their lower are heavy and they can't move. The reason behind this is there has not been a single fitness test, there is no benchmark," Misbah was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
"Fitness test level during domestic season becomes a joke. We used to have arguments that we used to say that the standard used for the international level must be used for the domestic level as well. The responsible people at the domestic level always opposed us related to fitness," he further added.
Many teams around the globe now pay equal attention to fitness and the players have to achieve desired levels of fitness. West Indies kept Shimron Hetmyer out of the national squad for long due to his fitness issues while India have also dropped several players due to the same reason.
As far as Pakistan team goes, it isn't known if the players have to clear the fitness tests or not. The Men in Green clearly struggled in the field in the warm-up match against England and missed several chances as well. They failed to defend a target of 161 in the warm-up match.
The Babar Azam-led side is now facing Afghanistan in its next warm-up fixture. Pakistan will kick off their T20 World Cup campaign against India on October 23.
All eyes are on the hyped up India-Pakistan contest with which both the teams will open their T20 World Cup 2022's campaign.
India squad for T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami.
Pakistan's squad for T20 World Cup: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Shan Masood.
