Former Pakistan opener Salman Butt named Shan Masood, Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan as the fittest players in the Pakistan team now. He also called them three of the ten fittest players in world cricket prior to Pakistan’s Test series against Bangladesh as well. However, Butt showed his concern about the overall fitness of the Pakistan players and he felt their preparation wasn’t at great levels as well.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Butt said: “Improvements will be seen in fitness soon. You cannot say all the players are not fit. If you look at some of the players they are among the top 10 players in terms of fitness in World cricket. You can look at Shan Masood, Fakhar Zaman, and Mohammad Rizwan, you look at their fitness, they have achieved good scores in the Yo-Yo Tests. They are good in the gym and run well on the field. Things are not getting developed in the way they should be. When this happens, the entire team is blamed unfit, people won’t look at fit guys even though all the players are hardworking.”

However, Salman Butt gave the example of Pakistan’s white-ball captain Babar Azam as evidence of how a few players in the side has excellent fitness. Azam is ranked in the top five among batters in all three formats, including a long-time No.1 ranking in ODIs.

“Babar Azam scored truckloads of runs in the last 2 years, he proved his fitness, he ran on the field, and scored runs while batting first as well as second innings. Things should go up but they are getting broken in the middle, which is wrong. So, this is the responsibility of the players to maintain their fitness,” Salman Butt concluded. “The entire Pakistan is talking about the fitness of the team and it brought a storm in Pakistan, players at the junior level were asked to run. This came after people said players weren’t fit in the T20 World Cup 2024. No one questioned the physios or trainers, but instead, they started making players at the district level push hard for fitness. Those who made errors are still there.”