Pakistan handle pressure a lot better now, can beat India in World Cup, says pace legend Waqar Younis

Pakistan defeated India for the first time in a World Cup clash in the 2021 T20 World Cup in Dubai. The Men in Green ran roughshod over the Men in Blue with a 10-wicket win. However, in the ODI World Cup, the Pakistanis are yet to break the duck: The neighbours have squared off seven times and India has always come out on top. But former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis expects his home side to continue changing the scene in the ODI World Cup as well with Babar Azam, the man who led the team to the historic 2021 win, at the helm. Waqar, who has played India in a few World Cups, admitted that they ‘choked’ against India back in his days, but thinks that won’t be the case anymore. “In our times, the pressure wasn’t that of a big concern as what it seems right now. The lesser you play against a team, that too against a big team — so whenever you’ll play them, especially if it is Pakistan and India, the pressure would be immense and tripled. “Pressure is always high, but maybe in our times, it was comparatively lesser because we used to play lots of cricket in my early days. But then again, in World Cup, we used to choke against India. Nonetheless, as I said, players these days are handling the pressure definitely better. These match-winners, which I mentioned earlier, they’ll win us the game,” Younis told Cricket Pakistan Waqar also asserted that the side was equipped with the necessary resources and that it was now just a matter of putting them together and braving the pressure. “Pakistan team have handled pressure in a better way in the recent past. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter wherever you play, irrespective of whether in India or Pakistan, if you have your process in check and are executing your skills and plans sufficiently well, so I don’t think so we have any issue. “We have match-winners, we have individuals that can win you matches single-handedly, including Babar himself, Shaheen — Fakhar can do wonders, then, of course, we have seen Imam playing great innings, so all-in-all, Pakistan has all the resources definitely, now it’s just the matter of putting things together and handling pressure,” Waqar said. Meanwhile, Pakistan hasn’t still confirmed their participation in the mega event, which will be played from 5 October to 19 November in India. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is waiting for a nod from the government to let the team travel to India. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has formed a 14-member panel to look into the question and is expected to make the call after receiving their recommendations. Reportedly, the PCB management committee head Zaka Ashraf met the panel on Thursday.