The India-Pakistan rivalry on the cricket field is famous all over the world; however both the nations haven’t played any bilateral series for quite a long time now due to the political tensions. If we talk about the matches played between both the nations in the World Cup tournaments then until October last year, India was invincible against Pakistan as the former had defeated the latter 7 times in ODIs and 5 times in T20Is. In October last year during the T20 World Cup, Pakistan led by Babar Azam registered its first win over team India which was led by Virat Kohli and recently in the Asia Cup 2022, Pakistan once again defeated India and made it impossible for the Indian side to enter the finals.
Recently, the former Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi talked about the times when India’s approach towards Pakistan changed and why it is changing once again in the present times.
While speaking in a TV show, Shahid Afridi states that if we take a look at the Indian team then in past few years, especially under Dhoni regime, it changed its approach and attitude towards Pakistan because it was dominating and winning all the matches played between both the nations.
Afridi added that he is sorry to say but at that time, India kept Pakistan aside and shifted its focus towards other teams such as Australia, South Africa, England, etc. He said that their batsmen started competing with those teams at that time but now things are changing as the Pakistani team is playing well and has won some matches against them in the recent past.
The former Pakistani skipper emphasized that approach is very important as it decides in which level you want to keep yourself.
The Indian team may have been winning bilateral series in all the three formats but it hasn’t won any ICC tournament since 2013, so the Indian fans are keeping their fingers crossed this time and hoping that India will win its second T20I World Cup and repeat the success which it achieved in 2007 under the leadership of MS Dhoni.
As far as India-Pakistan match is concerned, both the Asian neighours will face each other on October 23 in Melbourne.