India deserve to have upper-hand over Pakistan in World Cups: Waqar Younis

India have always had the upper-hand when facing Pakistan in ICC tournaments, especially the World Cup. The Indian cricket team has never lost a World Cup game to arch-rivals and neighbours. Former Pakistan pace legend Waqar Younis explained why India always held the edge over his team when it came to World Cup encounters.

While interacting on Twitter platform @GloFansOfficial, Waqar Younis said:

“Over the last few World Cups, Pakistan have not won against India. We did well in other formats, we did well in Test matches, but when it comes to World Cups and ODI Cricket, India has always had an upper hand on us. And they deserve it. I think they played better cricket than us,”

Waqar Younis had a wonderful international career, picking up 373 Test and 416 ODI wickets in a career spanning 14 years. However, one of his biggest regrets is missing out on being crowned World Champions when Pakistan won the World Cup in 1992.

Pakistan managed to reach the quarterfinals in the 1996 World Cup but Ajay Jadeja’s sensational onslaught on Waqar Younis ushered their early exit.

'India played better cricket and played smartly': Waqar Younis

Waqar Younis feels that Pakistan held the upper hand in many of these World Cup encounters but failed to hold their nerves when it mattered.

“I remember in Bangalore and back in I think that was in Pretoria in 2003. I remember most of them and I think I have played a couple of them. So they were a very good side and I think on that particular day they just came out with a very positive frame of mind, they played better cricket and played smartly,” the 48-year-old said.

Pakistan had lost to India in the 1992 edition as well and went on to lose in the 2003 Super Six encounter, 2011 semifinals, 2015 and 2019 group-stage encounters as well.

“We did not play smartly; we had games in our hands. If you look at the World Cup in 2011 and then of course back in ’96 also we had the game in our hand, but it is just, we… we just threw it away. It is hard to pinpoint why we do that, maybe, it’s just the pressure of the World Cup now because it happens so many times, it is just the psychological pressure on us that we just cannot really win against them but yeah, it’s very very difficult to pinpoint on one thing,” Waqar Younis felt.

Pakistan’s triumph over India in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final is their only major victory over their neighbours in ICC tournaments.