Salman Butt: “The strike-rate mafia and intent mafia are basically illiterates of cricket. They have no idea about the format they are talking about”
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Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt said the national team is suffering at the hands of the “strike-rate mafia and intent mafia”.
He noted that these people pushing players to play a more aggressive brand of cricket in Tests are “basically illiterates of cricket” and don’t know what they are talking about.
Salman’s comments come after Pakistan suffered an embarrassing 2-0 loss against Bangladesh in a two-Test series in Rawalpindi.
Despite having home advantage, the men in green suffered batting collapses in the second innings of both Tests. Salman found this incredibly infuriating as he noted the batsmen in the team need to understand that their job is to stay at the crease for a long period of time and wear down the opposition.
“The strike-rate mafia and intent mafia are basically illiterates of cricket. They have no idea about the format they are talking about,” the 39-year-old said on his YouTube channel as quoted by Cricket Pakistan.
“You lose within four days and come back, what are you going to do by playing fast? You played just 46 overs. What hurry do you have? Why don’t you understand that your job is to bat long?
“Do the greats of the game play like highlights? Do the likes of Joe Root, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma score runs in this fashion?”
Many of the players are now taking part in the Champions One-Day Cup, which is a domestic 50-over tournament being played in Faisalabad.
Following this, Pakistan will go up against England in a three-match Test series, which is scheduled to be held from October 7 to 28.
Pakistan Squad for Bangladesh Test Series: Shan Masood (captain), Saud Shakeel (vice-captain), Aamer Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Kamran Ghulam, Khurram Shahzad, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Ali, Muhammad Hurraira, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Shaheen Shah Afridi