Varun Chakravarthy was no surprise, this kind of bowling is common in Pakistan’s street cricket: Salman Butt

India vs Pakistan: Former captain Salman Butt said that mystery spinners rarely succeed against Pakistan as their style of bowling is common in the country’s street cricket and the batsmen can predict their deliveries easily.

Chakravarthy and the rest of the Indian bowlers could not take a single wicket against Pakistan on Sunday. (Reuters Photo)

HIGHLIGHTSChakravarthy ended the match with figures of 0/33Butt said that Pakistan’s players would always be able to read mystery spinnersBabar and Rizwan dominated the middle overs in which Chakravarthy rotated largely with Jadeja

Varun Chakravarthy was a far cry from his dangerous self who starred for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this season on Sunday against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. Chakravarthy ended the match with figures of 0/33 and former Pakistan captain Salman Butt said that his failure in the match was simply down to the fact that the batsmen from the country are used to playing this style of bowling.

“Varun will never be as effective against Pakistan as he is in the IPL. There are overseas players in IPL who were not able to pick him but Pakistan have no issues with mystery bowling,” Butt said on his Youtube channel. Butt took the example of former Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis and further said that Chakravarthy remains a good bowler but Pakistan batsmen have grown up playing against these kind of bowlers.

“Ajantha Mendis struggled a lot against us and in the end he was not selected against us. The type of bowling Varun uses as a variety is common here in street cricket. It’s not that he is not good, it’s just that we are used to it,” said Butt.

“Later, when he will analyse the match, in videos he will see that the batsmen were playing him easily regardless of whether he was bringing the ball in or taking it out. They will know this is not going to work, you need good pace and proper spinners,” he said.

Chakravarthy was KKR’s highest wicket taker with 18 scalps but against Pakistan, openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were able to pick him easily with both players hitting sixes in his final over. Pakistan eventually chased down a target of 152 without losing a wicket to record their first-ever World Cup win over India.

“There can’t be flight for finger spinners, the ball always come at a low trajectory. Basically, if you have never played finger spinners, you wouldn’t know what’s happening. But if you have played them then there is absolutely no issues, you just need to look at the bowler’s hand and you can predict what the delivery is going to be,” he said.

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