"How many players did you make?"- Salman Butt slams PCB for poor bench strength
Former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt was baffled to see Pakistan's pace attack in the ongoing Test series against New Zealand. The hosts were already missing the services of Shaheen Afridi and also ended up losing Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah to injuries.
While the aforementioned bowlers have world-class quality and clock-stunning speeds, Butt was shocked to see someone like Mir Hamza being named as a replacement as he could barely clock 130 kmph. They also gave a Test cap to Mohammed Wasim Jr, who has played more T20 cricket for Pakistan.
In a video on his YouTube channel, Salman Butt compared the backups that India have prepared for their pacers compared to Pakistan and slammed the PCB for their lack of quality replacements. He said:
"Shaheen was initially unfit, followed by Haris Rauf and then Naseem Shah. And we don't have a big talent pool either, thanks to our so-called quality-oriented management. You speak that India didn't have Bumrah, but countries like them had 8-10 people ready to take the spot of an injured player. How many players did you make? What was the bench strength you made ready?"
Salman Butt on BCCI's special review meeting
Salman Butt read reports that the BCCI had decided in a review meeting on Sunday that they would have NCA work with IPL teams to track the workload of key Indian players. He feels this is a good move since injuries hurt the Men in Blue last year, especially in multinational tournaments.
Here's what he had to say about this:
"The amount of injuries that India has to deal with over the past year, right from the T20 World Cup in Dubai to the one last year where Bumrah couldn't come, has been huge. This certainly affects the balance of the team as players keep on coming and going due to injuries."
Any changes in this squad? 🤔🏏
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Indian squad for Sri Lanka ODIs: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.