India player Vijay Shankar recently made an appearance on the Bharat Army’s podcast where he revealed how a Pakistan fan tried to exasperate the Indian players by hurling abuses. It was a high-profile game in Manchester which garnered a lot of attention from quarters of the globe.
However, India had an easy game securing a convincing victory by 86 runs. Rohit Sharma played an outstanding knock of 140 while Virat Kohli and KL Rahul contributed with fifties. Chasing a mammoth total of 337 runs, Pakistan were all out for 212 runs.
Pakistan fans hurled abuses – Vijay Shankar
Meanwhile, Vijay Shankar, who last appeared for India during the 2019 Cricket World Cup revealed how a Pakistani fan approached the Indian players and started hurling abuses towards them. Incidentally, the Indian players had gone out for coffee a day before the India-Pakistan game.
“Few of us players had gone out for coffee one day before the game when a Pakistan fan came up to us and he was literally abusing us,” he recalled. “So that was my first experience of an India-Pakistan game,” Shankar added.
Vijay Shankar further added how the Pakistani fan was constantly abusing the Indian players whilst also recording the incident at the same time which restricted the Indian players from reacting.
“We just had to take it. He was abusing us and recording everything, so we couldn’t react. All we could do was sit and watch what he was doing,” Shankar added.
Vijay Shankar, who was accompanied by his state captain Dinesh Karthik helped the World Cup debutant cope up some pressure before the big match. He disclosed how he would chill out with Karthik during their free time.
“I want to go out for a coffee and all and I had Dinesh Karthik with me. So the two of us would go out for coffee. We used to have some fun, which is very important, I feel, because the pressure is very high. So we just have to give some time to ourselves, ease out and chill.”
The Tamil Nadu born wasn’t the initial first-choice player in the playing XI. However, Vijay Shankar justified his selection where he picked Imam-ul-Haq’s wicket off the first ball to be the first player in the world to pick a wicket off the first ball on World Cup debut.
