On Thursday, many Pakistani cricketers chose not to attend the extra training session to rest before a very important World Cup match against South Africa. Only 8 of the 15 players on the World Cup playing squad and 3 members of the reserve squad went to the training session at Chidambaram Stadium. The other 7 players, including fast bowlers Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Hasan Ali, chose to rest so they wouldn’t be too tired for the big game.
World Cup 2023: Most Pakistanis skip training before South Africa match
Pakistan has lost three straight games and must win their game against South Africa on Friday. They can’t afford to lose any more games right now because they only have 4 points after 5 games. Some players who chose to rest were wicket-keeper Mohammad Rizwan, all-rounder Mohammad Nawaz, spinner Usama Mir, and starter Abdullah Shafiq.
But captain Babar Azam and his assistant, Shadab Khan, came to the nets and trained for about two hours. Some of the players who went to the extra practice session were Imam ul Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Saud Shakeel, Iftekhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Wasim Jnr., Zaman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, and Mohammad Haris.
The players looked like they were practising hard-hitting to get the most out of the powerplays. At the same time, reports say that Mickey Arthur, the director of the Pakistan team, gave the players a pep talk to get them ready for the big game.
