Former Pakistan cricketer Salman Butt has taken a dig at Pakistan captain Babar Azam, especially after the poor performance of the team in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024.
Captain Babar Azam and the Pakistan team continue to face criticism for their poor performance in the ongoing T20 World Cup, where the team's chances of moving to the 'Super 8' stage are no longer solely in their hands.
The 2009 winners suffered a surprising setback to the United States in their first match, losing in a 'Super Over' tiebreaker. It came after a setback to perennial rivals India, despite leading for 32 of the match's 40 overs.
Pakistan made a comeback against Canada in their next match winning by 8 wickets and will face Ireland in their final encounter of the Group A stage game. Pakistan now needs other results to go their way to finish second in the group and move on to the next round.
Former Pakistani players have slammed captain Babar and his team. In another social media video, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt was seen criticizing Babar and his teammates.
"There is self-proclamation that our captain is the king and the other is the world's best fast bowler. Sometimes we compare this guy with (Jasprit) Bumrah and him (Babar) with (Virat) Kohli...Okay, you touched ICC (top) ranking at one point, but also touched reality sometime.
Are you able to win a match on your own? Is there a standing of our team? it's similar to those YouTube thumbnails that you are enticed to click and open once,” Salman Butt said in a viral video.
Butt added that some of the decisions taken in Pakistan cricket are influenced by social media campaigns.
"Besides its good things, one bad thing about social media is that you can get anything done by paid campaigns...your decisions are based on paid campaigns. We should bring these self-proclaimed greats back on earth and (tell them to) stay who they are. First win a match, a big tournament, fight it out to win against a big team, finish a match single-handedly, then think what you want to proclaim," a visibly angry Butt added.
He said that there is no comparison with India at the moment, who have grown with the game and are mentally a much tougher unit now.
"India is very different from us...Their mental superiority is winning them matches...Because of being consistent, because of playing tougher teams, playing better cricket, and giving better results, mentally they are accustomed now. They don't feel the pressure now like they used to earlier.
But we haven't grown. There are changes in cricket every year, but we are not growing with that, so we are getting weaker. The other teams are growing, mentally as well,” Butt signed off.
Here is the video:
