After the India vs Pakistan game, most of our voices were gone. It wasn’t because of screaming and cheering for a team. It’s gone hoarse because we are tired of saying that India and Pakistan is not a contest any more. It is a no-contest. Just go and check out the highlights of what really transpired in the game in Dubai on February 23. Then you will realise it’s not a one-off situation.

If you have a look at India’s performance against Pakistan in the last few years, the difference between these two teams is crystal clear. There’s daylight between these two teams. This fact is explained perfectly as Pakistan only have a couple of good performances to show after playing so many important ICC tournaments.

One is beating India in the final of the Champions Trophy 2017 and the other is in the 2021 T20 World Cup. That’s about it. Every other time they’ve met each other in ICC tournaments, India has beaten Pakistan. That’s some record.

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Stark contrast in approaches

In the 80s and then 90s. Pakistan were a dominant team. In the 80s they were a better team. In the 90s, slowly and steadily, India started competing, but Pakistan stayed as the stalwarts. Even until the early 2000s, the Pakistan teams were very, very strong. But if you look at the last decade or so, the gap between India and Pakistan is increasing and that was clearly on display in this encounter.

Have a look at the match situation on Sunday. Pakistan went past 100 for the loss of two wickets and look at their batting approach at that time. Cut to India. India are cruising to a victory, almost at the same juncture in their innings. See the difference between these two teams. It’s quite apparent that, you know, Pakistan was scared of losing.

They didn’t want to be embarrassed. They’ve got a decent partnership going with Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel, but they were not being adventurous. They were only looking at going past 260 and put on a safe total. Look at India. They were cruising and the batters that were coming out to bat after that, still went for their shots.That tells the difference in mindset.

One team is playing not to win, but to dominate. The other is playing so that they are not criticised, so that they don’t perform that badly that people pounce on them. That’s the difference. That difference in mentality hasn’t come immediately. It’s happened over time between these two teams.

There was a time when Shreyas Iyer got out. He was playing his aggressive stroke. You needed less than three an over. You could have easily cruised, but he was still playing his strokes. Got out, no issues. Went off with a smile. Hardik Pandya came, danced down the wicket, hit Shaheen Shah Afridi for two fours. He got out, ball going down the leg side, smiled and went. It did look like that the Indian team was kind of having fun. They were toying with the Pakistan team. And that’s not great news. Because as cricket fans, we all like that India-Pakistan rivalry, you know, wins, losses.

They were fine. India won on occasions and lost as well. But everyone enjoyed that rivalry. That isn’t there anymore. One of the major factors is if you look at the IPL, the advent of it, and the effects of the competition didn’t come immediately. It started in 2008, but it tok five, six years for the effects to really show. And from 2013–14 onwards, when the IPL established itself, the difference was evident. And it’s only increasing.

India’s bench strength trumps Pakistan

Pakistan don’t get to play that much international cricket. India get to play. Indian youngsters get to play in the best league. And that’s why the gap. If you look at India’s bench strength, it tells you the difference. There are players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudarshan, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, so many outstanding batters who can’t even make it to the ODI squad.

They’re not even close to ODI selection and it tells you the depth in India’s batting. Probably, if you had made up a team of that, that would have been far more fearless and better than the current Pakistan side.

Then have a look at Pakistan. They’ve been having continuously poor results, not doing well. They’ve played bilateral series here and there, but they are so far behind India. If you look at it in big tournaments the 2024 T20 World Cup, the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, whatever the situation is. The difference is that Pakistan will have the same team only.

Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi will be there as the bowlers. Rizwan, Imam, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, all of these are going to be their batters. That’s it. There’s no depth there. So regardless of the performance, this is going to be the players that Pakistan have because they are the best that are available. This just illustrates the gap between these two teams. And that is a reality.

Kohli comes to form yet again

The common joke now is that whenever Virat Kohli is out of form, get him to play against a team that’s wearing green and boom, there you go. So every time he’s up against Pakistan, he comes up with a performance like that.

Maybe it fires him up to put his best against Pakistan. On Sunday, it was a comfortable knock, made easy by batters batting around him as well. Shreyas Iyer getting those quick fire runs, Shubman Gill looking so solid, helped Kohli ease into a 100 because this is his comfort zone and he likes to bat like that.

The batters around Kohli also made it, you know, comfortable for him. And that’s a good strategy. You want your best batter to be in good form, whichever way it comes. So you make him comfortable, let him play at the pace that he can.

It wasn’t a big total you were chasing. The rest of them also looked in good nick. This allowed Kohli to play in his comfort zone and reach that hundred. The standout feature of that hundred was also the fact that he played Abrar Ahmed well. He can spin the bowl both ways and we know leg spinners have been troubling Kohli lately.

But he played Abrar with far more confidence and that’s a good sign going ahead into the tournament. Other than that, Shubman Gill looks so fine when he bats, technically correct. Last but not the least, Indian bowlers. There was this notion that India don’t have bowlers to take wickets in the middle overs.

Yes, Pakistan did have a partnership, but India turned it around in the middle overs, thanks to Kuldeep Yadav. And he’s picked up three wickets, the most by an Indian bowler on the day. And then Hardik Pandya, how good has he been? Firstly, gets you Babar Azam, then gets you a breakthrough in the form of the well-set Saud Shakeel.

The Indian bowlers deserve the credit for keeping Pakistan to a below par total of 241. All in all, a dominant display by the Indian team. They’re looking like the best team in the tournament so far. India at the moment are looking like the real deal. They’ve already made it to the semi-final and wouldn’t be a surprise if the final is played in Dubai on March 9.