The relationship between India and Pakistan isn’t friendly, to say the least. It wasn’t great before, but since the Pahalgam terror attack in May, there has been a lot of animosity from both sides.
With no way to deal with it, people from both nations and sometimes even governments, fuel the cricket rivalry. This way, the India vs Pakistan match becomes more of a proxy war than a simple cricket game.
We rarely see India vs Pakistan games anymore. So when they do happen, a lot of eyeballs are there on it. But given what’s transpired in the last few months, the upcoming match in the Asia Cup 2025 will take whatever has happened in the past up another notch.
India will thrash Pakistan in the Asia Cup
Naturally, people in both nations want their team to win. Former Pakistan batter Basit Ali wants the same. But his reasoning’s a bit different. Generally, you just don’t want your team to lose. But Basit has bigger fears.
He hopes India will boycott the match against Pakistan. It’s something that has happened in the World Championships of Legends after severe online backlash from the Indian public. But Basit’s reasons aren’t nationalistic. He fears that India will demolish Pakistan in the Asia Cup if the match happens and therefore hopes it doesn’t.
“I pray India refuses to play against Pakistan in the Asia Cup, just like how they did at the World Championships of Legends. Itni buri tarah maarenge na vo, ki aapki soch hai (They will beat us so badly you can’t even imagine),” Basit said on The Game Plan YouTube channel.
We have seen Pakistani fans and even experts want Pakistan to beat India, even if they don’t win the trophy. Some of them value losing an ICC or Asia Cup title over losing to India. Basit knows this. It won’t matter to the public that Pakistan lost to Afghanistan or Sri Lanka, but if India beats them, everyone will be up in arms.
“If we lose to Afghanistan, no one would care much in this country. But everyone goes mad the moment you lose to India,” he added.
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