'On seamer-friendly pitches, you're relying on out-of-form players?' - Salman Butt reckons India's Test cricket strategy needs rethink

Former Pakistan opener Salman Butt feels that India needs to reconsider their five-batter approach in Test cricket. His comments come after Virat Kohli and Co. conceded the three-Test series to South Africa 2-1, losing a chance to record their maiden series triumph in the Proteas land after they took a 1-0 lead in the series.

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Butt questioned the excessive backing by the Indian management towards out-of-form batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane when skipper Virat Kohli has himself been in a lean patch of sorts. He stated that India’s struggle was inevitable after they went only with five batters, of which three were not in a good nick.

“India need to rethink their approach. Both form and experience matter. But what we saw in South Africa was that Rahane and Pujara were preferred over in-form players. On seamer-friendly pitches, you are relying on experienced players who are out of form. In addition, you are going in with only five specialist batters. Of the five, there were question marks on the form of at least three players. This was going to make life very difficult, which is exactly what we saw,” he said on his YouTube chancel.

He also opened up on the absence of Rohit Sharma, who was forced out due to an injury in the build-up to the series. Butt noted that in Rohit and Kohli’s presence, the shortcomings of Indian batting order are not as widely visible, although with the former not being around and senior players unable to respond to the challenge, India were left wanting.

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“When Rohit Sharma is in the team and when Kohli is in form, they bat so well that they dwarf the weaknesses of the Indian batting. However, here, Rohit was absent due to injury. Kohli is in decent form but is not getting big scores. There was thus greater responsibility on the other batters, but their response was not up to expected standards.”

South Africa sealed the series 2-1, chasing down 212 with seven wickets in hand in Cape Town Test after winning Johannesburg Test by the same margin.