Former Pakistan batter Bazid Khan has opined that the main difference behind India producing great batters in the recent past is due to legendary batter Sachin Tendulkar.
As per the 42-year-old, the main difference of India having good batters was due to making Sachin Tendulkar their icon while Pakistan batters started to make 'Boom Boom' Shahid Afridi their icon.
“Historically India has produced great batters. People follow their icons, they had Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, but the latters played a big role, the pool of batters we are seeing now is because of Sachin,” Bazid said in a show on national TV.
“In Pakistan, Shahid Afridi became a big name and most of our batters started to follow him which somehow was damaging for us,” he added.
He concluded by saying that the next generation of Indian batters will follow Virat Kohli.
It must be noted that Pakistan will face India in their next match during the mega event on October 14 in Ahmedabad.
Earlier, Pakistan carried on to their impeccable form and registered a historic win against Sri Lanka in the eighth match of the ICC World Cup 2023 on Tuesday.
The Men in Green pipped Ireland to claim the record of the highest-ever run chase in the history of ODI World Cups.
Chasing the target of 345 runs, the Men in Green met with early blows as they had lost their top-order batters, Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam, in just 7.1 overs and were 37-2 but the match-winning partnership between Mohammad Rizwan and the World Cup debutant, Abdullah Shafique, changed the fortunes of the struggling Pakistani side.
The 176-run stand between the two batters provided their side the much-needed break and got them in a dominating position once again.
Abdullah walked back to the pavilion after scoring 113 off 103 courtesy of 10 fours and three sixes but Rizwan stayed till the end and took his side over the line by scoring 131 runs — Pakistan’s second-highest individual score in the World Cup overtaking Ramiz Raja’s 119 against New Zealand in 1992.
The Babar Azam-led unit also won their first match of the event against the Netherlands.
- Shahid Afridi
