India Vs Pakistan Cricket World Cup 2023: Batters Following Shahid Afridi Has Damaged Pakistan Cricket, Says Bazid Khan

Bazid said that in India, generation after generation, budding cricketers have looked up to legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, while in Pakistan, Shahid Afridi was the batting icon.

Former Pakistan batter Bazid Khan did not mend his words when it came to brutal analysis of batters that Pakistan have produced since Shahid Afridi's retirement. Bazid believes that Pakistan cricket has not been helped by the budding cricketers looking up to Afridi for inspiration. He says that, in India, the new generation has always looked up to Sachin Tendulkar and now the place has been taken by Virat Kohli.

Bazid feels that Sachin, Virat and previously Sunil Gavaskar have ensured that they inspired a generation of battes who went on to become legends for India. On the other hand, Pakistani batters have emulated the Hit-at-all-cost cricket of Afridi.

“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 as per Geo Super 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.

India vs Pakistan on October 14

The Cricket World Cup 2023 has already seen some terrific matches. Now, the time has come for the epic clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan. These two cricket sides rarely meet each other in international cricket and the ICC events are the only time they face each other. That is the big reason why there is a big hype around this match.

Historically, India have never lost to Pakistan in a World Cup encounter. The two team have faced each other seven times, and on all seven occasions, India came out on top. Babar Azam's Pakistan will be looking to end the winless run for his team in Ahmedabad. The Pakistani cricket team arrived in Ahmedabad a day before India on Thursday, practiced at the Narendra Modi stadium for the first time. 

At the same time, Indian team is in great form. Like Pakistan, they are also unbeaten so far in the tournament, having beaten Australia and Afghanistan in the two matches so far. India have their all bases covered and start as favourites vs the arch-rivals on Saturday. Expect a full house for the match which will also see a pre-match show in which singers Arijit Singh, Sukhwinder Singh and Shankar Mahadevan will take part.