Mohammad Azharuddin thinks India are a step ahead of Pakistan

Former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin, former Pakistani chief selector Aamer Sohail, and Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh were involved in a discussion about India and Pakistan. They were talking about how India are way better than Pakistan and the latter have a long way to go before they match their neighbours.

Azharuddin and Sohail were a part of some amazing India-Pakistan clashes in the late 90s. Both of them have played some great knocks against each other and were discussing the chances of both the teams in the Champions Trophy in a panelized discussion on India Today.

Mohammad Azharuddin’s view

Azharuddin believes that India is a much better side than Pakistan is. Given the infrastructure and how they have improved over the years. Azhar was very positive about the chances of India lifting the Champions Trophy as well. Azhar said, “Today’s Pakistan team does not have a lot of match-winners. India is much stronger.”

Aamer Sohail agrees

Sohail, who was a fierce opener in his time agreed with Azharuddin and said that Pakistan missed the trick when they put too much faith in the likes of Imran Nazir and Shahid Afridi. He said that both the players were not the ones who would stabilise the team.

“There’s plenty of gaps. Indian cricket authorities have invested in the right areas and they emphasized on the basics of cricket. We started relying too much on players like Afridi and Imran Nazir, who were not very dependable. They could only win you 10 out of 100 matches,” Sohail said.

He also said that India have produced some terrific fast bowlers recently. Agreeing to the fact that back in the day there were only some Indian bowlers who were extremely good. He also said that Indian bowlers now think of wickets and have improved a lot.

“In the past, we never associated India with fast bowlers. There were exceptions like Kapil Dev and a few others. Now, they have a few together and their approach is refreshing because they think wickets. Indian outlook has changed,” he said.

Harbhajan has his say

Harbhajan believes that India have worked extremely hard on their fast bowlers. They have given good infrastructure and the likes of Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra gave India new perspective. He also believes that Pakistan have good individual players but they were one of the best sides once upon time.

“India have worked hard on fast bowlers. After Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra gave India a new perspective. Pakistan have a lot of good individuals now but once upon a time, they had fast bowlers who rocked the world. Now, India has that kind of talent and the National Cricket Academy has played a key role there. The fitness levels even in Ranji Trophy are pretty high,” Bhajji said.