Sunil Gavaskar says India’s win against Pakistan was expected

Saddled by off-field distractions, the title defenders India started their 2017 ICC Champions Trophy campaign on a high when they humiliated arch-rivals Pakistan in a Group B encounter at the Edgbaston on Sunday. India posted 319/3 in a rain-hit match, on the back of explosive knocks from Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli.

Pakistan were never really in the hunt as their batsmen failed to keep up with the asking rate and lost by 124 runs. The Indian cricket team was at its best. Virat and Rohit Sharma regained their form, Yuvraj proved his selection, Hardik Pandya’s all-round efforts were brilliant, and the bowlers performed to their expectations as well.

It was a complete team performance from India. Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar was full of praise for the team’s performance, echoing captain Virat Kohli’s stance that it was an all-round performance. The former skipper also opined that India’s convincing win was actually to be expected.

Speaking to NDTV, Gavaskar called the match a “damp squid” and added “But that was in a way to be expected. Because Pakistan (are) short on experience, and short on class as far as their batting is concerned. Their bowling’s been okay, but as far as the batting is concerned… there is a lot of room for improvement.”

Indian team too good for Pakistan 

He also highlighted the fact that the game was a one-sided affair and it was nothing like how India-Pakistan rivalry used to be during the times of Sachin Tendulkar and Javed Miandad. The current Pakistan team lacks fire power.

“You can see it, the way India is beating them easily. They’re winning by comfortable margins and are hardly pressed. It certainly shows that there’s a big, big gap between India’s cricket and Pakistan’s cricket.”

Although the match was a one-sided affair throughout the second innings, a victory against Pakistan was sweet nevertheless.