However, Salman Butt, a former Pakistan captain, believes India made a mistake by fielding mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy in Sunday’s match. Chakravarthy’s bowling was no surprise to Pakistan, according to Butt, because they are accustomed to facing such spinners.
Chakravarthy was chosen ahead of the more experienced Ravichandran Ashwin for India’s much-anticipated match against Pakistan in Dubai. The 30-year-old, who had previously impressed for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). In the Indian Premier League (IPL), gave Pakistan’s openers little bother. Chakravarthy finished with a four-over batting average of 0 for 33.
“Varun Chakravarthy may be a mystery bowler but he was no surprise to us. Kids in Pakistan play a lot of tape ball cricket. Every kid in Pakistan plays this kind of bowling in street cricket. Where bowlers do the finger tricks with the ball and try different variations.” He explained
“At the start of his career, Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis also troubled a lot of teams with his mystery element. But his record against Pakistan isn’t great. After a while, Sri Lanka stopped playing him against India. We have never found any mystery in mystery bowling because we have grown up playing such kind of bowlers.” He added
Babar Azam
At the outset of his reign, Chakravarthy was frugal. Once they got their eye in, Pakistan openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan targeted him. The Indian leg-spinner had no response. Salman Butt
Butt even went so far as to say that if India had learned their lesson. After the thrashing in Dubai, they would never play someone like Chakravarthy against Pakistan again.
“I don’t think India will play Chakravarthy against Pakistan again and, if they do, expect the result to be the same. Just by looking at someone like Varun, Pakistan’s batters can figure out whether the ball is going to come in or go out. Whoever, the Indian analyst is, perhaps he wasn’t aware of the fact that the one who introduced mystery spin in world cricket, Mendis, wasn’t successful against Pakistan at all.” he said
Apart from Chakravarthy, the other Indian bowlers failed to make an impression in the match on Sunday. In his three overs, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was dismissed for 25, while Mohammed Shami was dismissed for 43 in 3.5 overs.
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