When you lose 11 on the trot against the same side in matches spanning nearly a quarter of a century, across four different continents and two different sporting formats, the term ‘jinx’ is all you can use to explain it. However, when we dissect those matches closely, it’s mostly a case of the better team on most occasions winning.
Barring 1999 it is hard to recall a Pakistani side taking on India at a World Cup with a far superior line-up on paper. While the 1996 team might have edged India on paper, the home ground at Bangalore tilted the odds in India’s favour. Both sides fielded some of their weakest teams in 1992, despite Pakistan eventually winning the World Cup.
The 2003 clash in South Africa was arguably when both sides were close to the peak of their powers. While Sachin Tendulkar played one of the best innings of his life, the World Cup signified contrasting directions for India and Pakistan - after nearly two decades of Pakistan dominating India everywhere barring the World Cup.
Shoaib Malik
Whatever happens in the tournament, the cricket board needs to do some soul-searching for the long run
Since 2003, it’s simply been a case of India being a much better team than Pakistan. And while Misbah-ul-Haq almost dragged Pakistan over the finish line (twice) at the 2007 World T20, India has ensured its supremacy in both the ICC World Events.
But superior teams do lose against their inferior oppositions at World Cups of any sporting event. Pakistan lost to India in its two most successful 50-over World Cup outings 1992 and 1999. For that to happen, however, you need to prepare yourself for a match realising that you’re facing a stiffer opposition - measure their strengths, figure out their weaknesses and then make a plan that could help you overcome the odds.
Pakistan team after Yuvraj Singh's dismissal
Pakistan almost never do that. And Saturday was no different.
While the rain ahead of the match at Kolkatta might have contributed to the pitch’s behaviour, the previous games at Eden Gardens showed that it wasn’t a pitch to play four pacers on - no matter how good your fast-bowlers might be. And so on a wicket where Ravindra Jadeja was turning the ball light years, Pakistan had both their left-arm spinners Mohammad Nawaz and Imad Wasim on the bench.
But of course, one could argue that India didn’t play the extra spinner, Harbhajan Singh either. One of the reasons for that was that they had Ashwin, a frontline specialist spinner, that Pakistan don’t have in their squad for a tournament that is being played in India.
Shahid Afridi is not a frontline bowler. He has never been one, and never will be, should he decide to continue playing on despite the facts and realities glaring him in the face. He has rarely given Pakistan wickets when the opposition isn’t chasing the game and the required run-rate isn’t climbing. Even on Saturday, it was Shoaib Malik who looked more threatening with the ball.
And yet it was Afridi who ended up bowling all of his 4 overs by the 16th over of the 18-over game, by which time India had wrapped up the match. This was one over more than Mohammad Amir, by far the team’s best bowler and two more than Mohammad Sami, who in a two-ball span had given Pakistani fans the audacity to dream.
While one can’t argue with the class and consistency of Virat Kohli, who lives off the big occasion, you can only say ‘too good’ when you’ve given at least somewhere near your own best.
Whatever happens during the tournament - Pakistan might even pull off a fluke and reach the semis - there is long-term soul searching that the cricket board needs to do. Shaharyar Khan’s press conference on Monday, while being inopportune considering that the team was still very much in the tournament, highlights the revamp that Pakistan needs in the limited-overs format.
While the captains will change, and players will be sacked, what is needed is a thinking mind that can help bolster the mental shortcomings of Pakistan. The rest of the world has evolved from the eras of ‘talent’ and ‘individual brilliance’ - cricket has become a game of thinking and hard-work more so than ever before. The successes of the Indian team in the past decade vindicate that.
