India pacer Ishant Sharma believes that Pakistan is already under huge pressure from their own fans and any extra pressure from India will only make things harder for them. Having lost both their matches against India in the ongoing Asia Cup, doubts are growing over whether Pakistan still pose a serious challenge to their arch-rivals.
Speaking on Raj Shamani’s podcast, Sharma said, “Pakistan already have so much pressure on them. How will they handle more from us? Their fans in the stands are always shouting and sometimes I even feel bad for them,” he said.
Sharma praises former Pakistani cricketers
Sharma also mentioned that the pressure in the India vs Pakistan match was higher when they had great players.
“The pressure in an India-Pakistan match was higher when they had players like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Saqlain Mushtaq and Afridi. Those were great players. The kind of talent, exposure and infrastructure we have now, they can’t match it.”
Pakistan first suffered a heavy 7-wicket defeat in the group stage and then lost again by 6 wickets in their Super 4 opener, continuing their poor record against India.
In T20Is, India dominates the head-to-head record with 11 wins from 15 matches, while Pakistan has only 3 victories and one match ended in a tie.
Adding to the debate, India skipper Suryakumar Yadav recently dismissed the idea of a rivalry between the two teams, sparking more discussion around this high-profile clash. When a senior Pakistani journalist asked Yadav about the big gap between the two teams, he smiled and replied sharply, saying, “Sir, I request we stop calling India-Pakistan matches a rivalry. A rivalry exists when it’s close – like 8-7 after 15 matches. Here it’s 13-1 (12-3) or something. That’s a no-contest.”
Pakistan’s road ahead
Pakistan did get some relief with a bounce-back win over Sri Lanka in their Super Four match, moving to two points from two games and improving their net run rate (NRR) to +0.226.
Sri Lanka suffered a second loss, which caused their Net Run Rate (NRR) to drop to -0.590.
India, leading with two wins and a NRR of +0.689, seems likely to reach the final. The battle for the second spot may come down to a direct clash between Pakistan and Bangladesh, but Pakistan’s chances could rely on India beating Bangladesh in their next game.