Dubai: The Cricket rivalry between India-Pakistan is well known and whenever the two arch-rivals are set for a clash, millions of cricket fans across the world wait with a bated breath between the two for the outcome of the high-decibel clash between the two sides.
As expected, Virat Kohli-led India will face Babar Azam’s Pakistan in a high octane Group 2 clash in the Super 12 stage of the ICC Men`s T20 World Cup 2021 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.
India last hosted Pakistan in a bilateral series in 2013 and the teams now meet only in global tournaments. The two teams last met in the group stages of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, with India convincingly defeating the old rivals to maintain their undefeated streak in World Cups.
The two arch-rivals have met each other five times at a T20 World Cup and ‘Men in Blue’ have won on all the occasions. However, a new day awaits for both the teams on October 24 and they will have an equal chance to win.
Both teams come into the match with decent practice under their belt, having played two warm-up matches each. Pakistan beat West Indies by seven wickets in their first match before losing to South Africa off the last ball in the second. India, the 2007 champions, on the other hand, won both their warm-up matches, beating England and Australia.
Both teams are full of talented T20 players who can single-handedly win games for their sides on any given day.
The likes of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rishabh Pant will be India`s strength in batting while Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Md Shami, Shardul Thakur, and Varun Chakravarthy will pose a tough challenge to opposition batting.
For Pakistan, captain Babar Azam, wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, and Mohammad Hafeez will be key in the batting while the likes of Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, and Shadab Khan will look to trouble the Indian batters.
Here’s a look at how this rivalry between the two arch-rivals has given produced s memes-
‘Mauka mauka’ memes
Though India-Pakistan rivalry has existed for long on the cricket ground, it saw a new dimension when the fans took the rivalry to the meme world a few years ago. It all began with the iconic ‘Mauka Mauka’ advertisement in the run-up to the Indo-Pak contest in the 2015 World Cup. The ad showed a Pakistani fan desperately waiting for the ‘mauka’ (opportunity) to burst crackers to celebrate his side’s triumph over arch-rivals in the World Cup. But as Team India continues its winning streak, the fan is utterly disappointed after every tournament. The iconic ad and the jingle became a rage on social media, and it triggered a flurry of hilarious memes on the India-Pakistan cricket rivalry. However, when the Pakistani side beat India in the final of the Champions Trophy, it gave an opportunity to many Pak fans to tease Indian fans with memes such as “Ab aa gaya mauka”.
The hilarious broken TV sets memes
Crazy Cricket fans going berserk and breaking their TV sets in frustration and anger whenever their team lost gave birth to several memes. Since the mid-’90s, there have been media reports about fans from across the borders destroying their TV sets in anger whenever their side lost a crucial match to the arch-rivals. This has led to several hilarious and creative memes with India-Pakistan rivalry as the central theme and trends almost every time the two sides come face to face with each other.
Memes on heart-broken Pakistani fan
The 2019 World Cup gave birth to the famous ‘disappointed Pak fan’ meme before the two teams clashed with each other. But on June 22, when the two sides actually faced each other, there was a plethora of memes. With luck by their side, Team India defeated Pakistan again in this high-octane clash. A post-match interview of a visibly disappointed Pakistan fan, identified as Momin Saqib, outside the stadium led to multiple memes. His emotional rant on his team’s loss immortalized the phrases “Waqt badal diya, jazbaat badal diya” and “Maaro mujhe maaro” as popular memes.
Sarfaraz memes
Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed became the butt of several jokes from fans on both sides of the border after a picture of him yawning in the field went viral even before the India-Pakistan encounter giving birth to several hilarious memes on him.
