Former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is widely regarded as one of the most astute cricketing brains. He recently highlighted the biggest fear of Pakistani cricketers, citing the example of their recent defeat at the hands of India in the ICC U19 World Cup 2026.

To secure a place in the semifinal, Pakistan needed to complete the chase of 253 in 33.3 overs or less, but they didn’t even try to achieve the objective and instead remained focus on not losing to the arch-rivals.

In the process, the Boys in Green ended up conceding the game by 58 runs and were knocked out of the tournament.

“Look, see, a team has to chase a score in 33 overs,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel. “If you are able to chase or not, leave that. If you can’t chase in 33 overs, you are not qualifying. Keeping that in mind, how will they chase 250?”

“See, the messaging was very clear. Whatever happens, you cannot lose against India. That is not how sport is played. You have to play it in a fashion that we have to qualify. We have to win the World Cup.

“This is quite funny, at the same time it’s quite sad to see it. I would love Pakistan to play the right way,” he added.

In the chase, Pakistan U19 were cruising at 151/2 but skipper Farhan Yousaf’s wicket in the 30th over triggered a collapse. Khilan Patel and captain Mhatre ran through the opposition line-up with three wickets each as Pakistan’s innings eventually folded for 194 in 46.2 overs.

Ashwin offered further blunt assessment from Pakistan’s perspective, saying they don’t just have to beat India on the day but forced to fight the story around the match as well.

“I want to see the India-Pakistan encounter because, see, there are a lot of business decisions in this,” Ashwin said. “Because they always have to fight that the team they are playing against — they have to play against that too — and the narrative also needs to be fought and it’s very hard.”