Chopra hits back at Afridi after ‘Indians asked for forgiveness’ remarks

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Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi’s recent statement about the Men in Green’s dominance over India during his international career, raised eyebrows and irked cricket fans and cricketers from across the border, including cricketer-turned commentator Aakash Chopra.

Afridi had claimed that Indian cricketers asked for forgiveness after losing to Pakistan on numerous occasions.

“I have always enjoyed India. We’ve beaten them decently, really decently. I believe we’ve beaten them so much that they used to ask us for forgiveness after the match,” said Afridi on the Cric Cast show on YouTube

Chopra, in a YouTube video, first acknowledged that Pakistan used to have an upper hand over India when they had stalwarts like Imran Khan and Wasim Akram. However, the 42-year-old claimed that the scenario had changed from the time Afridi made his debut till the time he retired.

“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 neighbouring nation. But it was not the ‘Afridi time’ that he is talking about,” said Chopra.

“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,” he added.

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Former Indian cricketer then went onto present certain stats to support his argument and negate Afridi’s claim.

“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,” 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 backwards? Maybe, he [Afridi] wanted to say something else, and he said something else. I am really surprised.”

“If we talk about the current scenario, there is quite a difference. If you look at World Cup records, you will find India have gone quite ahead. When India travels to Australia, they beat Australia. When Pakistan travels to Australia, they lose by quite a fair margin. There is a lot of difference between the two teams at this time,” he added.

It must be noted that Pakistan has won 12 out of their 59 Test matches against India, with the latter registering nine wins. 38 matches ended in a draw.

Meanwhile in One-day International (ODI) cricket, Pakistan once again have the upper hand with 73 wins as compared to 55 in 132 encounters.

In Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), India has only lost once to Pakistan in eight matches and have been on the winning side on six occasions. One match ended in a tie.