September 26, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 13, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 25: Chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed on Tuesday defended national team’s vice-captain Salman Butt after the player’s unimpressive performance in the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship raised a few eyebrows in the cricketing circles here.

After a series of poor outings, Salman was dropped from the playing line-up in the semifinal and the final of the 12-nation tournament.

Salahuddin, a former Test cricketer, however said Salman was only suffering from a bad patch and will bounce back in the home series against South Africa starting with the opening Test here at the National Stadium from Monday.

Salahuddin Sallu defended the decision to include Salman in the Twenty20 squad, saying that the Lahore-based batsmen scored heavily in a series of practice games arranged prior to the championship.

“Salman was one of the most prolific batsmen in those practice games and in fact was the only one to score a century,” said the seasoned official. “Salman is a very talented young batsman and I’m sure that he would get some runs and regain his confidence in the coming days.”

The chief selector praised Pakistan’s performance in the Twenty20 World Championship and said that in spite of losing in the final, the national team did a great job in South Africa. “Our team played really well and was a bit unlucky not to win the world title,” he said.

Among the batsmen, he singled out Misbah-ul-Haq for his superb performance. “There was a lot of criticism against the selection of Misbah but he proved that he was the right choice.”

Salahuddin also hailed the performance of newcomers Sohail Tanvir and Fawad Alam in the tournament. “Sohail and Fawad have showed us that if given a chance our young cricketers have the guts to do well against the world’s top teams,” he said.—APP