India paid a price for not including express pacer Siraj in T20 WC squad – Salman Butt

Former Pakistan opener Salman Butt has slammed the Indian selectors for not including Mohammed Siraj in the T20 World Cup squad. The pacer was impressive for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2021, giving runs at an economy rate of 6.79.

Butt said that without the express pace bowler, the Virat Kohli-led team was found wanting against Pakistan and New Zealand. After losing to the Men in Green by 10 wickets, the Kiwis thumped India by 8 wickets in Dubai.

“I think India didn’t select their best combination. How can you not select a player with the best economy rate in the IPL? And the fastest bowling speed in terms of the England series? Yes, Siraj. Then you have many fast bowlers,” Butt said on his YouTube channel.

“There should have been some surprising pace element in the team. When the opposition knows that there’s no bowler who can bowl over 145kph, or threaten with bouncers and yorkers then your bowling can’t create the wicket-taking impact. You are not going to make people think twice before they attack you because the pace isn’t there,” he added.

He also spoke about India’s inability to defend low score against the Kane Williamson-led side.

“How many times have we seen such bowling sets defend low totals? It’s difficult unless you have specialist wicket-takers in there. When there’s a low total, [opposition] batters will have to make a lot of mistakes, you can’t induce them easily. Today India should have bowled and set their fields like Test matches but this bowling isn’t suited to that.”