The next couple of months are going to be full of intense on-field rivalries, especially when India and Pakistan will lock horns, that too, on multiple occasions. The arch-rivals will square off against each other in the upcoming Asia Cup in September and if they manage to advance to the finals, the fans will have a blast. Later in October, the two teams are scheduled to play each other in the mouth-watering clash at the ICC World Cup 2023 in Ahmedabad.
The India vs Pakistan matches in the 50-over world cup have their history. The Indians are still unbeaten and will look to keep the record intact in the upcoming edition as well. But it’s also a fact that Pakistan will pose a tough challenge in the tournament. Cricket in the neighbouring nation is going through a positive change ever since Babar Azam took over as the captain and even defeated India in the 2021 T20 World Cup to alter the record books.
Former Pakistan captain Waqar Younis believes that Pakistan will enter the World Cup as a strong contender for the title. Sharing his views about Pakistan’s star-studded squad, Younis recalled how the green army used to remain under the pump during Indo-Pak clashes, admitting that Pakistan used to choke against India in ICC events.
“In our times, the pressure wasn’t that of a big concern as what it seems right now. The lesser you play against a team, that too against a big team – so whenever you will play them, especially if it is Pakistan and India, the pressure would be immense and tripled.
“Pressure is always high, but maybe in our times, it was comparatively lesser because we used to play lots of cricket in my early days. But then again, in World Cup, we used to choke against India. Nonetheless, as I said, players, these days are handling the pressure definitely better. These match-winners, which I mentioned earlier, they’ll win us the game,” Younis told Cricket Pakistan.
Waqar further underlined the current Pakistan team’s capability of handling pressure, naming the ‘game-changers’ who can take the team to glory in the upcoming ICC event.
“Pakistan team have handled pressure in a better way in the recent past. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter wherever you play, irrespective of whether in India or Pakistan, if you have your process in check and are executing your skills and plans sufficiently well, so I don’t think so we have any issue. We have match-winners, we have individuals that can win you matches single-handedly, including Babar himself, Shaheen – Fakhar can do wonders, then, of course, we have seen Imam playing great innings, so all-in-all, Pakistan has all the resources definitely, now it’s just the matter of putting things together and handling pressure,” Waqar said.
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