India captain Suryakumar Yadav advised everyone to stop referring to the matches between the two countries as a serious “rivalry” after his team beat Pakistan with exquisite ease in Sunday’s Asia Cup Super 4 match in Dubai.
The current world champions have won 12 of the 15 T20I meetings between India and Pakistan, with the Suryakumar-led team prevailing by six wickets in the latest instance.
Suryakumar smiled in response to a senior Pakistani journalist who inquired as to whether the disparity in standards between the two sides had gotten too great: “Sir, my request is that we should now stop calling India vs Pakistan matches a rivalry.”
When the scribe explained that he was talking about “standards, not rivalry,” the Indian captain made a casual joke.
“Sir, rivalry and standard are all the same. Now what is a rivalry? If two teams have played 15 matches and it’s 8-7, that’s a rivalry. Here it’s 13-1 (12-3) or something. There is no contest,” he said before grinning and leaving the media conference room.
