'Ham log negativity phailaate hain, aapne player hi khatm kar diye'

Over the past few months, Pakistan are enduring a middle-order crisis in the shortest format of the game. The side's middle-order woes came to fore on occasions when openers Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam failed to step up for the side, exposing the middle-order batters early in the game. While many former cricketers have time and again talked about the side's inconsistency in the middle overs, the team management has continued to denied the glaring weakness. Earlier this week, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt spoke in detail about the side's issues during a video on his official YouTube channel. While talking about India's convincing victory over South Africa in the second ODI of the series in Ranchi despite an absence of star players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Rishabh Pant among others in the squad, Butt said that Pakistan are “squeezing” their talent pool instead of producing more players. Also read: 'Respect doesn't come with wins, defeats': Ashwin's blunt reaction to Ramiz Raja's 'billion dollar team' jibe at India “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?” Butt further talked about PCB chairman Ramiz Raja's recent comments in the media, where he seemed to take a dig at the national media and former cricketers for being too critical about 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 said in a hard-hitting remark. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON

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