Former India captain Sourav Ganguly claimed that India-Pakistan rivalry in recent times has been quite one-sided, with the Men Blue emerging victorious against their arch-rivals almost regularly. The comments of the former BCCI chief did not go down well with many.
Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali has now opposed Ganguly’s statement.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, the he said, “I read Sourav Ganguly’s statement and was quite shocked. Ganguly, the ex-BCCI president has played top-class cricket and was a fabulous captain who developed a lot of players. I don’t agree with him saying that India vs Pakistan matches are one-sided in favour of India. No doubt you have beaten us a lot in ICC World Cups before but that hasn’t been the case since 2017.”
“We beat India at the T20 World Cup in UAE and last year in the Asia Cup, won one, lost one. Yes, India defeated Pakistan at the T20 World Cup in Australia but that was purely because of Virat Kohli. He won it single-handedly. Clearly the best-ever T20 innings.”
Basit Ali also disagreed with Sourav Ganguly’s comments about the India-Australia match being more exciting to watch. Ali said that there is a reason why the game between India and Pakistan is known as the mother of all battles. He said that people love India and Pakistan matches and the streets are empty in both nations when the two neighbouring countries face each other.
Ali went on to claim that the same thing will not happen during a match against Australia, no matter how high the level of competition is.
Since 2020, India and Pakistan have played four matches against each other and both sides have managed to win two games each. India beat Pakistan in the group stages of the Asia Cup last year. Pakistan got the better of Team India in the Super Four of Asia Cup 2022.
In the T20 World Cup, spectators witnessed two completely different performances from the Indian team. In the 2021 T20 World Cup, Pakistan thrashed India by winning the game by 10 wickets. The scene, however, was totally different during last year’s T20 World Cup. In 2022, Virat Kohli came up with an epic knock to earn a memorable victory for Team India against Pakistan.
India and Pakistan, arguably the two fiercest rivals in the history of cricket, will lock horns again in this year’s World Cup. The high voltage World Cup encounter between India and Pakistan will take place at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on October 15.
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