The Hindu : Sport : A remarkable comeback

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Tuesday, Nov 13, 2007
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Sport

Sport

A remarkable comeback

Nandita Sridhar

CRICKET / Butt’s career has been hampered by inconsistency

— Photo: AFP

SUBLIME TOUCH: Salman Butt played a sterling knock against India at Kanpur in the third ODI.

Kanpur: How’re these for stats? Salman Butt averages 33.89 overall in ODIs, 51.77 against India and 24.60 against other teams. Before this series, he had a poor T20 World Championship and was the 12th man against South Africa as the squad’s vice-captain.

In this series, he’s notched up scores of 50, 37 and 129. These numbers have come to define his one-day career.

Butt’s career, which began with plenty of promise, has been hampered by inconsistency. Somehow, an Indian bowling attack would crop up for his timely redemption. Three of his four ODI hundreds have played compensatory roles. The first one at the Eden Gardens was the breakthrough one; thereafter, some poor knocks have been followed up by dazzling hundreds.

Supple wrists

Characterised by supple wrists and an offside splendour, Butt’s hundreds have been a delight. Eventually, it all came down to confidence at Kanpur. If three centuries could not do it for him, nothing else could.

The left-hander’s improvement as a one-day player was on display, after questions were raised about his abilities to succeed in the limited-overs format. He had problems earlier. Batting after the Powerplays, with the field tailored to contain him, his knocks were plagued by an extended period of nothingness.

He was losing his place in the one-day team. He found himself out of the team quickly, back in the squad even quicker, made vice-captain in June, included in the Twenty20 World Championship squad as Shoaib Malik’s deputy, (this was after he was termed unfit for the “fast-paced” nature of ODIs.) and left out of the 11 against South Africa, after Pakistan’s famous Twenty20 final loss.

How does one keep one’s head?

Stepping down

Stepping down from vice-captaincy was a start. “I stepped down as vice-captain because I think I still needed a lot of time before I took up such a responsibility. I wanted to focus on my batting. I would not say that it was putting pressure on me but I think somebody who has been there in the team for a long time (Younis Khan) would be better for the job. “In the meantime, I can just focus on getting good results with the bat and improve myself. The seniors can make plans and strategies and we would just follow them,” said the 23-year-old before the series.

His efforts during the time spent away from the game looked like they are materialising. His scoring-rate in the middle-overs has been decent. The leg-side was milked for singles, and the pull executed with better control.

But there was no compromise on force. Butt is not a stereotypically defensive batsman. The shots that come off do so with enormous power, as one witnessed on Sunday. With a naturally high elbow position, his easy shuffle towards leg-stump helped him free his arms for any shot through the offside. The cover-drive, his bread-and-butter shot, was imperious. The acoustics at the Green Park meant that you could not just see the impact; you could hear it as well.

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