Former Pakistan all-rounder, Shahid Afridi has expressed his joy of playing against the Indian team and he also went on claim that the dominance of the men in green against the arch-rivals was so big that sometimes the Indian players had asked from the forgiveness from after the game. Currently, Pakistan has a lead of 73-55 in ODIs as they won 19 of the 30 ODIs in the 1980s while India won only nine.
During a conversation on the Cric Cast show on YouTube, Afridi said, “I have always enjoyed India. Unhe to theek-thaak mara hai humne. Itna mara hai unhe ki match ke baad maafiyan mangi hai unhone. (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).”
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He further added, “I have enjoyed a lot playing against India and Australia, you have more pressure. They are good teams, big teams. Going and performing in their conditions is the big thing.”
On the contrary, Shahid Afridi also thanked Indian fans for their love. He went on to express that his knock of 141 against India was one of his memorable knocks in India. He said that it was a difficult tour for the Pakistan team.
Recalling the time when Afridi had expressed that he receives a lot of love from the Indian people, Shahid said, “I have always stood by this (2016 statement in which he said he got the maximum love and support from Indian fans). When I believe in something I said then I apologize later.”
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He further explained, “The circumstances were difficult back in 2016 when I went to India for the T20 World Cup. Not only did I go there as Pakistan captain but also as my country’s ambassador so I had to deal with situations accordingly.”
Shahid Afridi said that his statement in 2016 was about crowd support and it only for the educated intellectuals. However, he had faced a lot of criticism in his own country back then for that statement.
