Misbah pleased with Pakistan players for maintaining fitness levels

Pakistan's former skipper and current head coach-cum-chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq is pleased with his players maintaining fitness during their time away from field. Misbah said that the fitness-related problems the management were anticipating did not take place.

“After a long time, all the players have come for practice. It is nice to see that the problems we were expecting have not happened even after such a long time. Overall, the players are physically fit while their skills are better than we expected. After training, they seem to be getting better. There are great facilities here and the boys are getting ample time. Overall, I think everyone is recovering everything very quickly,” Misbah-ul-Haq said.

Misbah-ul-Haq opens up on team's proposed training plan

Speaking about the team's proposed training plan before the upcoming Test series against England, Misbah-ul-Haq stated that segregating the squad in two halves and playing out practice games would be the go-to strategy to attain match-practice.

“As far as the matches go, we will try to pair them up and give them time in the middle. Every player should get one session. Five bowlers should be assigned a set of 90 overs for a day. We will try to move forward by pitting the squad against each other by making two teams. We will try to play four-day cricket in a similar manner,” he elaborated.

Misbah-ul-Haq emphasized on the match-practice aspect, deeming it as 'very important' in the current circumstances where players haven't got out into the middle for a while. The 46-year old feels that this will bear fruit in the future as well.

“Looking forward is very important for us. Bowlers need to face match scenarios because match practice is very important if you haven’t played in a while. It is important for us to utilise our entire pool of players. There is a lot of thinking and planning behind this tour. There is a plan for each player according to the red-ball and white-ball. This will bode well for the future as well. These few months will lead to great team bonding for future series as well,” Misbah-ul-Haq concluded.