Few things in cricket can get said without spurring disagreement. You name one T20 opener as your favourite, you get five names thrown back at you as being miles better. You name your favourite ground just to get told there are twenty prettier.
One thing that seems to create unanimous interest is when India face Pakistan. All around the world this is a fixture people keep one eye on, and Saturday’s Asia Cup clash will be no different.
As ever much of the talk now is dominated by player comparisons, by hypothetical scenarios of how easily Shaheen will find Rohit’s front pad. But if you only look at these games in isolation you might have missed something very notable in between, the quiet but confident ascension of Pakistan in ODI cricket.
Much gets said of the ICC Rankings which Pakistan currently top but one thing remains true, a team can only get there by consistently beating the teams in front of them. Over the last couple of years Pakistan have series victories over Australia, the West Indies, and finally New Zealand.
Looking at the talent they have available this should come as no surprise. A prolific top three matched by an equally talented pace battery, there are no shortage of stars in this Pakistan team.
Indeed, the majority of the attention goes to the mega stars at the top and at the tail. Babar Azam is year by year building a case for being one of the finest 50-over players of recent history whilst Shaheen Shah Afridi continues to electrify with every in-swinger.
Having watched plenty of Shaheen this summer in England I was struck by his ability to command the attention of everyone near the television, perhaps no bowler matches the level of threat his left arm manages to conjure.
Yet, there is still a sense that this will not translate to World Cup success later this year, that when it comes to crunch time it will be somebody else’s trophy to hold. Now, it is perfectly fair to hold this view given recent history.
In two successive T20 World Cups, Pakistan went far but not quite all the way. Despite getting to the final in 2022, it was perhaps failure in 2021 that stung more. For much of the tournament Pakistan looked as strong as any team in the tournament. When this happens it is only natural to put a limit of expectations, to try and keep yourself grounded for when it ends in tears.
But, I cannot shake this feeling that maybe this is the year to embrace the hope, fall in love and cast aside the fear that maybe it doesn’t end in a trophy lift.
This feeling was cemented for me when we were treated to Ifti-mania. For many, the 32-year-old Iftikhar Ahmed was never going to have his ODI moment in the sun, it was just another dream that was never going to happen.
Never going to happen until it did. In this lies the beauty of letting yourself hope in cricket. Sure, it might never happen, but words cannot begin to describe the euphoria if it does.
