Former Pakistan skipper Salman Butt says India will be under immense pressure if they lose Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli early.
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has pointed out that India’s batting line-up is quite “brittle” barring Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and if they lose these two batters early in the match, they would be under immense pressure.
“Apart from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, they have youngsters, who have played plenty of cricket but don’t have that much experience,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.
“India have won matches only when Rohit Sharma has played well or Virat Kohli has done something spectacular. When the onus is on others, they have mostly struggled.”
Butt also argued that the Babar Azam-led side will have an upper hand given the fact that they have a larger core group than India.
“Pakistan has Babar, Rizwan, Fakhar, Shadab, Shaheen, and Haris Rauf. And in my opinion, Pakistan has a much larger core group,” he said.
“India too has match-winners like Jadeja, Shami, Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli.
“But their batting is weak, if Pakistan picks up the two big wickets, then the others will have a lot to prove. They have not helped India win matches against Pakistan or in their own.”
Taking a pot shot at the Indian Premier League (IPL), Salman Butt said the Indian team will be under immense pressure considering the amount of expectations from them.
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“There are plenty of expectations from India, hence, the pressure is higher.
“And since India have not played against Pakistan for a long time for whatever reasons, their players, no matter how much IPL they’ve played, don’t have the experience of playing in such a high-voltage clash.
“Chahe subah, dopahar, sham IPL khel le (no matter how much you play in the IPL), it does not bring the same pressure, which is during the India-Pakistan series,” he said.
India will take on Pakistan in a high-voltage clash on September 2.