Pakistan's disgraced former captain Salman Butt believes that over-dependence on leg-spinner Yasir Shah has pushed the team on the backfoot in the ongoing Test series in England.
"I think there has been an over-dependence on Yasir in this series and that to me has put us in a difficult position in this series," Butt said in an interview.
Butt, who completed a five-year ban for spot-fixing last September after the infamous scandal in England in 2010, is presently in Kabul with a group of players taking part in the Afghanistan T20 league.
Butt, who was regarded as a shrewd captain before the scandal broke out, said that the England batsmen had worked out Yasir after the first Test.
"In the first Test at Lord's Yasir got a perfect pitch similar to the ones found in the UAE. But he lacks variation and is depending heavily on just two deliveries and the English batsmen have now worked them out," Butt said.
The former captain said that Yasir was bowling too quickly and not giving it enough air.
Butt also felt that Mohammad Aamir had also did not live up to expectations because he was a changed bowler since 2010.
"If you look at Aamir's videos you will see he was bowling more close to the stumps on the 2010 tour and got appreciable in-swing. But on this tour he is too wide of the stumps and is not getting the ball to come in," he said.
Butt, who led Pakistan on the 2010 tour to Test victories over Australia and England, said that Aamir was wasting too many balls wide off the stumps.
"I am surprised that Pakistan lost two back to back matches after winning at Lord's. Because the pitches they have got in the three tests are not typical English pitches the sort we encountered in 2010 with lot of seam movement," he said.
