Former Pakistani captain Salman Butt slammed the Indian team ahead of their much-anticipated clash in the Asia Cup 2023 on September 2nd in Kandy Sri Lanka. He said that the Indian team will be under pressure against Babar and co, as IPL experience will not help them.
India has picked a formidable squad including Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli and welcomed KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer back from injuries. In the bowling unit, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna returned from injuries, while Mohammad Shami is back after a break.
Despite assembling a formidable unit, former Pakistan opener Salman Butt feels Babar Azam and Co. will have the edge heading into the big-ticket clash in Kandy. He tried justifying his claim by comparing both sides.
"If we look at India's fast bowling, fitness is a concern. Players have been unfit for a long time, we don't know if they are fragile, or will they go full throttle. Apart from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, they have youngsters, who have played plenty of cricket but they don't have that much experience.
India has won matches only when Rohit Sharma has played well or Virat Kohli has done something spectacular. When the onus is on others they have mostly struggled,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.
“Pakistan have Babar, Rizwan, Fakhar, Shadab, Shaheen, Haris Rauf. And in my opinion, Pakistan have a much larger core group. India too has match-winners like Jadeja, Shami, Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli. But their batting is brittle, if Pakistan picks the two big wickets then the others will have a lot to prove. They have not helped India win matches against Pakistan or in their own,” he added.
Butt also feels that it will be the Indian team who will be under pressure considering the amount of expectations from them.
“There are plenty of expectations from India, hence the pressure is more. And since India has not played against Pakistan for a long time for whatever reasons, their players no matter how much IPL they've played, they don't have the experience of playing in such a high-voltage clash. Chahe subah, dopahar, sham IPL khel le (no matter how much you play in the IPL) it does not bring the same pressure, which is during India-Pakistan series,” he said.
India had last won the Asia Cup when it was played in the ODI format in 2018 and had defeated Pakistan twice in that tournament.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
