The T20 World Cup 2024 will take place in New York on June 9 between India and Pakistan.
During the UAE 2021 T20 World Cup, Pakistan snapped their World Cup losing skid against India. India has defeated Pakistan in every World Cup match up until that one (ODI and T20). By getting rid of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and the captain at the time, Virat Kohli, Shaheen Afridi upended the Indian batting order. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan then made sure that Pakistan completed the chase with more than two overs remaining and without losing a single wicket, even though they needed 152 to win.
Rizwan was 79 not out in 55 balls, while Pakistan’s captain Babar scored 68 off 52 balls. But a year later at the T20 World Cup in Australia, India exacted retribution, defeating Pakistan by four wickets thanks to an undefeated 82-run performance by Virat Kohli.
On June 9, when both teams participate in the T20 World Cup again, Rizwan reminisced about the events that led up to the game and disclosed the guidance given to the players by the PCB chairman at the time.
According to Rizwan, Ramiz had instructed the players to win the match against India regardless of the circumstances.
“Before the World Cup match, we had never defeated India. When we gathered, Ramiz Raja told us that we had to defeat India. Even though there was still a long way to go before the World Cup when he took over as PCB president, he had already been instilling this philosophy in the team from the beginning. As the World Cup drew nearer, he advised, “Just don’t lose to India,” regardless of whether you took home the championship or not. “He would always tell us not to give in to pressure before putting pressure on us,” Rizwan remarked at a Dallas event.
“Pressure is always present when India plays Pakistan. Even though not everyone watches every match in a tournament, everyone tunes in to see this game, regardless of their nationality. Matthew Hayden was with us at the time. He embraced the captain and me and inquired about our well-being. The captain stated that after putting in a lot of effort, we now turn everything over to God.Playing in a World Cup and in such a significant match was all new to me. As a result, I didn’t feel any different from before and was feeling very normal. That’s when I realized what we accomplished, though—after we won. When I go shopping in Pakistan, nobody will accept money. When they just stopped taking our money and instead praised us for defeating India, I stopped going shopping. We won, and everyone I met was congratulating us. “I once went to someone’s room and they told me they watched the match every day and it was on television,” he continued.
