Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra has given an explicit response to the controversial remarks that ex-Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi made about the Indian cricket team. Afridi recently claimed that Indian players used to “ask for forgiveness” after losing against the arch-rival Pakistan.
Unlike Afridi, who usually comes up with incendiary rhetoric to back his arguments, Chopra relied more on facts and figures to present his viewpoints with utmost decency on his YouTube Channel.
The cricketer-turned commentator remarked about the glory days of Pakistan cricket when the nation boasted of the fierce bowling line-up with ruthless predatory instincts. But those days are a matter of the past.
“Pakistan’s strength was sheer talent – from Imran Khan to Wasim Akram to Waqar Younis. Because of it, they did really well. They used to beat India, there is no doubt about that. But later, when Afridi started playing and till the time he retired, things had changed,” Chopra said in his latest video on YouTube.
Digging deeper into the statistical aspects of the Indo-Pak rivalry, he added,” If you look at the stats, we played 15 Tests, each of us have won 5 Tests each. In ODIs, you have won two more games than us. The stat is 41-39 in your favour in 82 games, so well done. But I doubt that anyone is going to ask for forgiveness for just losing two more games.
“But when you talk about T20I, the format in which you were really good, India lead the head-to-head contest by 7-1. Isn’t the story told backwards? Maybe, he (Afridi) wanted to say something else, and he said something else. I am really surprised.”
Chopra then talked about dominance India relishes against the neighbouring nation in ICC-organised tournaments.
“If you look at World Cup records, you will find India have gone quite ahead. You always remember the 2017 Champions Trophy final, but even in that tournament India had beaten Pakistan once in the tournament. India’s dominance is of a different kind. When India travel to Australia, they beat Australia. When Pakistan travel to Australia, they lose by quite a fair margin. There is a lot of difference between the two teams at this time.”
