Salman Butt exemplifies India’s domestic structure as a benchmark for Pakistan cricket

India won the third Test against Australia by 137 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to not only take a 2-1 lead in the four-match series but also allow themselves a chance of winning their maiden Test series on Australian soil. After the coup, Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, put forth the importance of playing domestic cricket for their constant improvement in batting and bowling.

Recently, Salman Butt, the tainted left-handed batsman from Pakistan, put forth India’s domestic cricket as the example for cricket in Pakistan. Moreover, the Lahore-born cricketer also revealed the reasons why India are a force to reckon with across all the three formats of the sport. Butt also said that players in his country don’t give much significance to domestic cricket.

Most of them haven’t played much domestic cricket

“Look when India won the recent Test against Australia, Virat Kohli credited India’s domestic cricket for the success in bowling and batting. India is doing well because their players are only allowed to play in the IPL T20 cricket and have to play Ranji Trophy unlike us where most players tend to avoid four-day domestic cricket,” Butt was quoted as saying in Indian Express.

“Look most of them (Pakistani players) have not even played 50 first class games. Not many of them have spent time in domestic four-day cricket. Worse they have played all their cricket mostly in UAE conditions,” the 34-year-old added.

Pakistan are currently in South Africa for the three-match Test series. The team, led by wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed, had the Proteas by the scruff of their necks in the first Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion, but couldn’t latch on to the opportunities the hosts presented them. In the end, Pakistan lost by six wickets.  The second Test is scheduled to get underway on January 3 at Newlands in Cape Town.

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