Inzamam denies illness rumours

A little cough and slight temperature will not keep Inzamam-ul-Haq out of a series of this magnitude © Getty Images

Inzamam-ul-Haq scotched speculation that he is a doubtful starter for the first Test against India at Lahore on Friday due to a high fever.

"Not me but the entire country is in cricket fever. The Indian cricket team is in Pakistan and with them here, my fever has no value," Inzamam said in a lighter vein when asked. "I have a little cough but it is certainly not an illness that would keep me away from the Test. The weather here is chilly and you catch a cough if you do not protect yourself properly. But I don't think any cricketer would miss any Test because of a cough."

Inzamam said that Pakistan's training camp would break for Eid-ul-Azha tonight but the players would reassemble on Thursday morning. "My concern is that with this two-day break, the boys might lose focus. We have concentrated and stayed focused during the training camp and this break can easily distract you because of the nature of the occasion," he said. "I thought to cancel the holidays but then allowed them to proceed for a couple of days because this occasion comes only once in a year and although the players would hardly get a chance to celebrate it, they would still have the satisfaction of being with their families."

Asked to answer candidly what he would have done had the first Test been at Karachi and a training camp was in progress in Lahore, he said: "I would not have terminated the camp and stayed back in Karachi. As a captain, you need to lead by example."