'Every kid in Pakistan plays this kind of bowling in street cricket'- Salman Butt on India spinner Varun Chakravarthy

Cricketer-turned-expert Salman Butt feels India made a huge mistake by playing mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy against Pakistan in their opening match of the 20-20 World Cup. Butt feels there is no such mystery in the India spinner and Pakistan are used to playing such bowlers in domestic setup. India made the brave call of opting to go with Chakravarthy instead of the experienced all-rounder Ravi Ashwin.

The mystery spinner didn’t quite trouble Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan as the duo milked runs at ease. The 30-year-old had a good season of IPL with KKR and managed to pick 18 wickets, troubling the opposition batters by using his smart variations. The Indian management didn’t use him in the warm-up matches as they didn’t want to expose him before the Super 12 matches.

The move of playing Varun though backfired as Azam and Rizwan played him with relative ease. Butt analyzed his bowling on his YouTube channel and said, “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.”

The cricketer-turned-expert also compared Chakravarthy with Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis and said Pakistan batters didn’t face any difficulty when they played Mendis.

“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.”

After a thumping 10-wicket victory against India, Pakistan next faces New Zealand on Tuesday (October 26).