‘DADA Ji Is Trying To Play Mind Games’: Former Pakistan Cricketer Reacts To Sourav Ganguly’s IND vs PAK Lost Its Hype Comment

New Delhi: Given the Men in Blue’s recent “one-sided” victories, the former BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly recently stated that the World Cup matches between India and Pakistan have lost their shine. Basit Ali, a former cricketer from Pakistan, said that “DADA ji” was trying to play mind games in response to Ganguly’s statement.

Ganguly’s statement came at a time when the ODI World Cup’s marquee match, scheduled for October 15 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, is getting a lot of attention. Even though Ali was respectful toward Ganguly for his contribution to Indian cricket, the former captain’s remarks shocked Ali.

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“I read Sourav Ganguly’s statement and was quite shocked. Ganguly, the ex-BCCI president has played top-class cricket and was a fabulous captain who developed a lot of players,” he said on his YouTube channel.

“There is a lot of hype in this match but the quality has not been that good for a long time because India kept on winning one-sided. Pakistan probably defeated India for the first time in the T20 World Cup in Dubai,” Ganguly said recently.

Basit Ali Reacts To Ganguly’s Remark

Ali disagree with the remark that India vs Pakistan encounters have become one-sided and said “I don’t agree with him saying that India vs Pakistan matches are one-sided in favour of India.”

He said “No doubt you have beaten us a lot in ICC World Cups before but that hasn’t been the case since 2017. We beat India at the T20 World Cup in UAE and last year in the Asia Cup, won one, lost one”

“Yes, India defeated Pakistan at the T20 World Cup in Australia but that was purely because of Virat Kohli. He won it single-handedly. Clearly the best-ever T20 innings,” added the former cricketer.

The 52-year-old also contradicted Ganguly who said India versus Australia matches are more crowd-pullers these days. “He also said that India vs Australia is a bigger crowd puller than India vs Pakistan. To that, I would just want to say that ‘Brother, when India plays Australia, are roads in your country empty? No.”

“They are empty whenever there’s an India-Pakistan match – both in India and in Pakistan. Everyone is glued to their TV screen and are praying. Look at the ticket prices for the World Cup; India-Australia costs are nowhere close to India-Pakistan’s. So I feel that Ganguly – DADA ji – is just trying to play mind games,” added Basit.