Pakistan’s recent defeat against Bangladesh has raised many eyebrows and has drawn serve criticism for the men in green from all around the world.
There has been a lot of questions raised on Pakistan’s poor bowling and batting performance in the Pindi test. Pakistan have history of producing some of the best pace bowlers in world cricket which included Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis Shoaib Akhtar etc.
However former Pakistani skipper Salman Butt feels that the pace bowling quality of Pakistan has dropped in drastically in recent times.
Pakistan included 4 pace bowlers for the first test against Bangladesh , however none of the pacers looked penetrating and failed to pick up wickets when the team needed. Speaking about the same on his YouTube channel Salman Butt said that he was surprised as he saw that Bangladesh bowlers were more quick than Pakistani bowlers which is hard to believe and accept.
Salman Butt stated, “Where do I begin? Using four quick bowlers, the decision to declare, the line and length—it all went poorly. I believe this is the first time Bangladesh’s bowlers were faster on average than ours. They seemed more fit than we were,” Butt commented.
Naseem Shah was Pakistan’s best fast bowler in the match. The 21-year-old took three wickets, while Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Ali, and Khurram Shahzad each got two. Together, they gave up 359 runs with a poor bowling average close to 40. Salmat Butt felt that “the younger fast bowlers performed better than the older ones.”
“There are many mistakes the team made. Where do we begin? Who do we choose to criticize because the list is long?” Butt questioned. He didn’t want to blame the Rawalpindi pitch, as the Bangladesh bowlers had a strong performance on the same field during Pakistan’s second innings.
“The problem wasn’t the pitch. It was the bowling quality. Our bowling coach mentioned that the pitch didn’t meet our expectations. The bowlers also commented that the pitch wasn’t ideal. This seems confusing, especially since Pakistan was all out within two sessions. Their fast bowlers took the early wickets of our top batsmen, and then the spinners took over in the middle,” he clarified.
The two teams are all set to tussle once again on August 30 in Rawalpindi.
