Rahul Dravid slammed by Salman Butt for 'frequent' talk on combinations: 'Pehle series toh jeeto!'

Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt has slammed India head coach Rahul Dravid for talking "frequently" about team combinations.

Butt has reacted to Dravid's comments ahead of the third ODI against Australia in which he stated that the management would be clear about the squad for 2023 World Cup after the conclusion of IPL 2023.

"Probably not going to get too many more games in our conditions. We had the opportunity to play in these conditions which is great.

Yeah, coming out of the IPL to a large extent we are pretty clear about the kind of squad and the players we want. We have narrowed it down to 17-18 players," Dravid told media people on Tuesday.

Reacting sharply to the comments form Dravid, Butt suggested that the Indian coach should first focus on winning the series against Australia and focus on solving the top-order woes of the team.

“Rahul Dravid said that they will keep trying different combinations. Pehle series toh jeeto! Badalna toh irrelevant hai (First win the series! Changing combinations is irrelevant).

We've to see how you solve your batting concerns first. All this talk about team combinations this is were the confusion starts. How much do you want to change?” Butt said on his YouTube channel.

“At this moment, all the conversations should be around the third ODI and how to win it. If someone asks a different question, you can say that it has got nothing to do with the match. He has talked a lot about combinations, this shouldn't be so frequent,” Butt added.

India's batting-order collapsed in the first two ODIs against Australia. In the first match in Mumbai, India lost four wickets for 39 runs while chasing 189.

In the second match the hosts were bundled out for 117 - their four lowest total in a home ODI match. They lost the match by 10 wickets and 234 balls remaining. The defeat was India's biggest in terms of balls remaining.

Notably, India will be hosting the 2023 World Cup in October-November this year.