Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra lambasted Pakistan’s director of cricket Mickey Arthur for making unusual excuses for their team’s loss against India in Ahmedabad. The Men in Blue defeated Pakistan in a dominating fashion, as Babar Azam-led side never seemed to be in the match on Saturday.
The high-octane game between India and Pakistan went beyond the on-field activity which included Mickey Arthur, the team director for Pakistan, making post-match remarks that the local supporters had exclusively cheered for India during the match and questioned whether the match was played under the control of ICC or BCCI.
“Look, I’d be lying if I said it did. It didn’t seem like an ICC event to be brutally honest. It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI event. I didn’t hear, ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ coming through the microphones too often tonight,” Mickey Arthur said.
Cricket expert and ex-player Aakash Chopra criticized Arthur for his post-match press conference, calling them “bizarre excuses.” The former Indian opener recalled that during their match against Sri Lanka in Hyderabad, “Pakistan will win” slogans were raised and that he would have been shocked if the song “Dil Dil Pakistan” had been played there.
DJ wale babu mera gana baja do…I mean seriously????
Did we hear Sri Lanka complain about the fact that the Hyderabad crowd was chanting ‘Pakistan Jeetega’??
I’ll be genuinely surprised if the DJ at Narendra Modi Stadium played ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ even once today. https://t.co/Nt6yM8Otme
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 14, 2023
“DJ wale babu mera gana baja do…I mean seriously???? Did we hear Sri Lanka complain about the fact that the Hyderabad crowd was chanting ‘Pakistan Jeetega’?? I’ll be genuinely surprised if the DJ at Narendra Modi Stadium played ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’ even once today,” Aakash Chopra wrote.
In his tweet, Aakash Chopra appeared to disagree with Arthur’s assertion that the outcome of the game was significantly influenced by the crowd’s bias. The former cricketer is not alone in the view as many cricket fans and experts agree that both teams should be ready to deal with such crowd dynamics and keep their calm in high-stakes games.
The Narendra Modi Stadium, the largest stadium in the world, was filled with supporters for the Men in Blue, and the Pakistani players may have felt the pressure during the high-stakes match in Ahmedabad as there were no Pakistan supporters for the team on the ground.
The Rohit Sharma-led team has won three of their last three games in the ODI World Cup and the Men in Blue will face Bangladesh in their next match on October 19 in Bangalore and they will look to attempt to maintain their dominance in the big event.