Aakash Chopra, former India opener has hit back at Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi after he claimed that Indian players begged for forgiveness and mercy after getting pummeled regularly in the 80s and 90s.
“I have always enjoyed India. We’ve thrashed them a lot. I believe we’ve beaten them so much that they used to ask us for forgiveness after the match," Afridi had said in a recent interview to Cric Cast show on YouTube.
Chopra, who played in the historic 2004 series in Pakistan, responded, saying Pakistan is an 'okay' team now and was not a strong side even during Shahid Afridi's tenure.
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"Pakistan team used to be good at one point. It is still an okay team today. But there was a time when India used to play against Pakistan at Sharjah and the balance was tilted towards the neighboring nation. But it was not the ‘Afridi time’ that he is talking about," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“Pakistan’s strength was a 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,” he said.
Chopra then presented some stats to prove that things have now tilted in favor of India.
"If you look at the stats, we played 15 Tests, each of us has won 5 Tests each. In ODIs, you have won two more games than us. The stat is 41-39 in your favor in 82 games, so well done. But I doubt that anyone is going to ask for forgiveness for just losing two more games," he said.
"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 backward? Maybe, he (Afridi) wanted to say something else, and he said something else. I am really surprised. Some of the best minds in the world have said that there is a cure when a snake bites you, but there is no cure for misconceptions,” Chopra said.
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“During Afridi’s time, the scenario was balanced, in fact, it was starting to tilt in favor of India. And if we talk about the current scenario, there is quite a difference,” Chopra added.
Chopra further said that the Indian team has now reached a different level when compared to Pakistan and used Australia as an example. India defeated Australia 2-1 in their own backyard recently in the Test series, while Pakistan was demolished 0-3 by the Kangaroos in 2019.
“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,” Chopra signed off.
