Taunton – June 30, 2016: With the England summer living up to its fickle reputation, alternating between sunshine, windy and cloudy atmosphere and a bit of a drizzle every now and then, Team Pakistan was put through some stiff work by head coach Mickey Arthur and his crew of coaches here today.
This was at the backend of a nearly hour-long gruelling fitness test session to measure the improvement obtained through the boot camp at Kakul and further work at Hampshire. At its conclusion, Grant Luden, Team Pakistan’s Strength and Conditioning Coach, seemed to be satisfied at the progress made so far (Pl find Video/Audio of the interview on PCB’s official web site).
After 10 days at Hampshire for training and acclimatization, Team Pakistan arrived here Wednesday (June 29), where fielding coach Steve Rixon also joined it after having flown in from Australia the previous evening – thus completing the contingent of cricket support staff.
After the noon time fitness test, taken at the Somerset County Cricket Club’s indoor nets, Team Pakistan drove over to the training ground, where, this being day one of the commencement of the tour officially, first Mickey Arthur gave a talk on what he expects from everyone, while subsequently Steve Rixon explained his philosophy of fielding.
With the talks over, the entire set of coaches got to work on a predetermined plan posted in the middle of the three nets, with the ones neither bowling nor batting at that point, going through intense fielding drills, with those freed up from the nets joining the session and vice versa.
With spring so obvious in everybody’s steps, and intensity almost similar to what was observed at the start of the day, it was obvious the emphasis in the past few months on fitness and healthier dietary habits has started paying dividends.
