ICC T20 World Cup 2022: Your Actions Have Squeezed Our Talent Pool - Former Pakistan Skipper Salman Butt On PCB Chairman Ramiz Raja

Pakistan is going through a middle-order crisis in the shorter format of cricket. This was highlighted throughout the team’s run to the Asia Cup final and the home series against England. The middle-order batsmen are not delivering for the Men in Green in the ongoing tri-series against New Zealand and Bangladesh ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022.

Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, and Mohammad Nawaz have performed on a few occasions but failed to play match-winning knocks consistently.

Former captain Salman Butt says Pakistan is “squeezing” their talent pool instead of producing more players. Butt spoke about India’s comfortable win over South Africa in the second One-Day International in Ranchi in the absence of star players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Rishabh Pant.

Pakistan Team Standards Fell – Salman Butt

“We squeezed the competition hoping that quality will emerge now. What happened? The players thought we will not lose the spots (since the teams are less). The number of players became less and the standards also fell,” Butt said.

“Here, the people are stubborn in making decisions. They didn’t care about the impact it would have on the quality of cricket. We don’t have a middle-order, now they are accepting it. But what can we do now?”

Ramiz Raja’s Actions Have Squeezed Our Talent Pool – Salman Butt

Butt stated that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ramiz Raja’s recent comments seemed to blame the national media and former cricketers for criticizing the team.

“You were saying that quality system will come. Ab aap gussa naa karein media pe, ab ye naa kahein ki hamein back karein. Ye naa kahein ki aap log negativity phailaate hain. Ham log negativity phailaate hain, aapne toh player hi khatm kar diye hain. Iss tarah ke kaam kiye hain ki players hi squeeze ho gaye hain. (Don’t be angry at the media, don’t ask us for your backing. Don’t say that we spread negativity; you have finished the players. Your actions have squeezed our talent pool),” said Butt.

“Agar aap koi drastic step bhi lete hain, toh aap kidhar jaayenge vaapis? Aapke paas Shoaib Malik hain, jo pichhle system ka hissa hai. Aapne kya banaaya? Aap zidbaazi karte hain, fancy baatein karte hain. (Even if you take a drastic step up, what’s there to fall back upon? You have Shoaib Malik who is a part of the previous system, which player did you produce? You are stubborn and only talk fancy things),” Butt added.

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