Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh has hit back at former PCB chairman Najam Sethi, who had said that the Indian team are afraid to play against their arch-rivals Pakistan. Team India dominated Pakistan over the course of two days to record their biggest win against Pakistan as well. While India posted 356-2, Pakistan eventually faced a heavy 228-run defeat.

Harbhajan Singh stated that he wished to convey a message to Sethi through his YouTube channel as well. “I have a message for Najam Sethi. He had said that Team India are afraid of playing against Pakistan, I hope he saw the kind of performance that Team India put up, a record win. I hope he must have got his answer, so keep your boys ready for the next game,” Harbhajan Singh said.

Accusing the BCCI and ACC of hosting the matches in Colombo in a bid to yield a no result against Pakistan, Najam Sethi had earlier said: “BCCI/ACC informed PCB today that they had decided to shift next India-Pak match from Colombo to Hambantota because of rain forecasts. Within one hour they changed their mind and announced Colombo as the venue. What’s going on? Is India afraid to play and lose to Pakistan ? Look at the rain forecast!”

However, rain played a spoilsport in the game as only 24.1 overs were possible on the first day, and the contest led into the reserve day as well. The second day also saw some interruptions due to rain, but the match was completed without the loss of any overs and India beat Pakistan as well.

Opining that Pakistan looked tired overall across all departments, Harbhajan Singh said: “From Pakistan’s perspective, they got nothing out of this match except for getting tired. Bowling was too weak, even the state of the batting was same, very poor batting performance. No Pakistani batter showed that they had the ability to play against quality seam and swing bowling and score runs.”