It is a fact that India and Pakistan do not play each other quite often these days due to the ever-growing political tension between the two countries. The last bilateral series that took place between India and Pakistan was way back in 2012. Since then no such series has taken place as the arch-rivals continue to meet in ICC and ACC events. India met Pakistan last at the T20 World Cup 2021 when the Babar Azam-led side outclassed India in every department to win the match by 10 wickets.
Barring that one defeat, India have a good record vs Pakistan. They have been beaten just once across World Cups, and that was last year. Former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar believes the reason for this is how Pakistani media hypes up the big matches. It is due to the unnecessary build-up and hype created on TV that affects the players.
“We, as (the) Pakistan team, used to play against India, why don’t you just play it as a normal match? We had come (into the 1999 World Cup) beating India in ODIs as well as Tests in their backyard. (It was) just the added pressure of the World Cup as well as the huge hype,” Akhtar said on Star Sports.
“Pakistan team used to get pressurized by that hype. This hype was created by TV (media) and we all used to watch TV,” he added.
Shoaib also spoke about his battles with India legend Sachin Tendulkar, who had memorable outing vs Pakistan in 1999, 2003 World Cups. In fact, in 2003 World Cup, he smashed Pakistani bowlers all over the park to score a match-winning 97. The Pakistani pacer himself said that Sachin was not scared of him although other Indian and world batters were.
“This Pakistan team used to get to the ground against India with unnecessary pressure. We even choked in the 2003 World Cup. But Sachin played me the best during the 1999 World Cup. All the other batters were scared of me at that time. Many batters of the world used to stop moving their feet against me,” Akhtar added.
India meet Pakistan again in Asia Cup 2022 clash on August 28 and all eyes will be on the modern-day greats Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam to see who gets better of each other.
