Of late Pakistan has been finding the grass on the Indian side sparklingly green. And they aren't just referring to the cricketing turf where India is in the middle of a near-perfect World Cup campaign. The erstwhile ultra-competitive nation, not known to give an inch but presently disillusioned by its falling cricketing stock, seems to have walked away from the region’s longest running one upmanship battle. The new self-loathing Pakistan has been unabashedly applauding Indian cricket, Indian cricketers and India. For the former cricketers-turned-TV pundits, Youtubers hoping for billion likes from across the border and even hardened politicians, India is the benchmark that Pakistan repeatedly falls short of. Follow all the action from the Cricket World Cup 2023 on our special World Cup section. You can also find the latest stats, like the top scorer and the highest wicket-taker of the current edition, upcoming World Cup fixtures and the points table on the site. Increasingly, most sporting and political introspections have the disparaging ‘look at them, look at us’ theme, with fingers being pointed across the border. Be it Rameez Raja, Wasim Akram, Mohammad Yousuf talking about Pakistan's underperforming cricketers or Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif taking potshots at their opponents; the India reference keeps cropping up. All through this World Cup, Akram's praise of Rohit Sharma & Co has gone viral in India. His articulation apart, it's his validation that is important for the country he tormented during his playing days. India has given Akram enough reasons to glorify them but Pakistan, a mid-table team with obvious flaws, has left him frustrated. On A Sports' popular The Pavilion show, Akram is on the panel with the three other Pakistan captains — Moin Khan, Misbah ul Haq and Shoaib Malik. To unbox India’s march, they discuss India’s robust coaching system that has the old hands Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. In the same breath they also point to the cricket setup in Pakistan that has seen 4 chairmen since 2018. There were more examples of India observations and the Pakistan riders. Pakistan batsmen don't use their feet against spinners — 'Look at the footwork of the Indians'. PCB botched the recovery and rehab of their pacers — 'Look at how BCCI got Bumrah fit and timed his return perfectly.’ Naseem Shah's injury crippled the team, Pakistan lacked bench strength — 'Look how India has replacement for every spot in the playing XI'. The ultimate approval for the all-conquering Indian pace battery came from Akram when after the India-Pakistan World Cup match he said that Haris Rauf needs to learn from Bumrah. Few days back, on another channel, master batsman Mohammad Yusuf was sounding hurt. He blamed the entire Pakistan ecosystem for the World Cup failure. "Hum sab zimmedaar hain (We all are responsible for this) since we don't respect each other," he said. Yusuf was pointing to the present Pakistan dressing room atmosphere, war of words between former players and mistrust between players and administration. You can try your hand at solving our Cricket World Cup crossword Yusuf too couldn't resist the temptation of leaning on the team of the tournament, India, to buttress his argument. “Why are these things not seen in India? It's because the Indian players respect each other. We haven't heard things said about (Rahul) Dravid, (Sunil) Gavaskar ji, Kapil (Dev) . Hamare yahan toh har ek player ko udaya gaya hai .. kisi ko nahi chhoda (In our country every player has had to face flak, no one was spared)”. This reverence for Indian cricket has peaked during the World Cup but it hasn't happened overnight. Kohli, the catalyst The catalyst to this thaw, unrelated to the border tension, has been Virat Kohli. Over the last decade, with India-Pakistan duels just confined to ICC events, the two cricketing nations had mostly stayed apart. However, it was Virat Kohli who broke the ice. He had them at hello. Since his junior India days, Kohli reminds Pakistan of their past heroes — the unintimidated aggressive fighters with extraordinary skills from the 80s and 90s. There's an older Youtube video from a few years back that has Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq and Shoaib Akhtar. They are discussing a Pakistan debacle. Saqlain had just returned from India where he had met Kohli at a gym. He saw respect in the Indian star's eyes, the kind Yusuf had spoken about. "Paaji paaji karta raha, he was meeting me like I was from his country. He was eating bhutta (corn), he said he hasn’t had paranthas for the last five years,” he says. The mostly Punjabi-speaking Pakistan panel let out a collective gasp of disbelief. Shoaib too has a story. “Once I asked Kohli, ‘don’t our cricketers ask you questions?’ He said, ‘they do, but it is always about my cars’.” Laughs, rather smirks, all around. Pakistan's opinion about Kohli hasn't changed. Just the other day, after another Indian win, all-rounder Abdul Razzaq used the Kohli example to undermine the present World Cup squad. "Jitni mehnat Kohli karta hain, uski 10 per cent bhi hamare player nahi karte (Our players don't even train 10 percent of what Kohli does)," he said. How much the Pakistan legends, and even the fans, want their players to be like Kohli. This sentiment echoes in a speech that Imran Khan, easily the most ruthless warrior India has faced on a cricket field, gave in April this year. He wanted Pakistan to follow India's foreign affairs strategy. At a PTI rally, he told the teeming thousands that Pakistan, like India, should buy oil from Russia. More recently, former PM Nawaz Sharif raved in an interview about India's economic progress: “India has gone to the moon, they have hosted the G20 meeting. We should have been doing all this . What dignity are we left with? We ask for money from China and from Arab countries.” Be it a World Cup debacle or a financial crisis, Pakistan has got into the habit of looking longingly at their neighbours. Social media has added a layer of toxicity to this self-deprecating narrative. The Youtube business model, that has likes and subscribers as its currency, has a role to play in the mushrooming of Pakistan channels that cheer India and troll their own players. Unconditional love for Kohli and unrelenting hate towards Babar Azam — it's a winning combination in the virtual world this World Cup. A popular Karachi-based Youtube channel has for months picked on Pakistan captain Babar Azam. While Virat is always addressed as King Kohli, Babar is referred to by an unprintable crude cringy slur. They present Pakistan as a basket case where nothing works and paint India as the utopian world where sun always shines, sun flowers keep blooming and smiling kids with Kohli written India blue T-shirts keep doing happy cartwheels. The truth is somewhere in between. Pakistan hopes that the tide will turn and they will be great again but for now they are sounding like anxious parents obsessed with the bright kid next door.
