Former Pakistani pacer Waqar Younis has named four players who he thinks will help Pakistan beat India in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 which will start on October 5.
Pakistan will take on India in the most anticipated match of the World Cup on October 15 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, the biggest stadium in the world that can gather as many as 132,000 spectators.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is likely to reschedule this match due to Navratri celebrations, set to begin on October 15.
Younis believes that Babar Azam, Imam ul Haq, Fakhar Zaman and Shaheen Afridi will be the key players for the men in green to finally make history this time and beat India in the 50-overs World Cup for the first time.
"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 in an exclusive interview with Cricket Pakistan.
The 51-year-old also talked about how much Pakistan have improved in handling the pressure as compared to the past.
"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.”
It has to be mentioned that the Men in Green’s record against the Blues in the World Cup isn’t something one would want to talk about as the former have lost seven out of seven matches against the latter including an infamous semi-final defeat in the 2011 World Cup in Mohali.
However, they did defeat India in the T20 World Cup 2021 by 10 wickets for the first time in a World Cup.