All the complaints of Indian seamers of having to play too much cricket do not cut ice with former Pakistan captain and coach Intikhab Alam who says they must bowl more than 750 overs in a season to claim top fitness and help their team win consistently.
"I hear so much about too much cricket. Yes, one-day cricket does put stress on your body because it is pressure cricket. But what I am interested to know is how many Indian bowlers bowl 750 overs in an entire season," says the former cricketer.
"I think they hardly bowl 300 overs in a season which is just not good enough to help them claim top grade fitness," Intikhab, under whose guidance Punjab reached their first Ranji Trophy final in 13 years, said on Thursday.
The Indian team is a well-balanced outfit but for the fitness of their seamers, he said.
"Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra are effective fast bowlers but they spend more time on the bench than in the field," Intikhab, who played 47 Tests and four one-dayers for Pakistan, said.
Intikhab, who was also the coach of the Pakistan team that won the 1992 World Cup, disagreed with the argument that Indian pacers were suffering because of docile Indian tracks.
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