Vijay Shankar recalls how a Pakistan fan abused him and a teammate during the 2019 World Cup

India all-rounder Vijay Shankar, who was touted before the 2019 World Cup as the team’s three-dimensional cricketer, recently narrated an incident which took place a day before the India-Pakistan World Cup match in Manchester. Vijay Shankar recalled how he and a fellow teammate were at the receiving end of a fan’s anger. Vijay Shankar said that the fan tried to annoy the two cricketers and had his mobile recorder on as well.

“So one day before the game, they told me, be prepared, you’ll be playing. And I was like, ‘OK,’” Shankar said on the Bharat Army podcast.

“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. So that was my first experience of an India-Pakistan game. “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,” Vijay Shankar revealed.

A short World Cup stint for Vijay Shankar

Vijay Shankar, for whom the first game of the World Cup was against Pakistan, started the tournament on a dream note. With the bat, he scored a crucial unbeaten 15 and with the ball, he struck off the very first ball. He dismissed opener Imam ul Haq and captain Sarfraz Ahmed. However, Vijay Shankar suffered a "toe niggle" ahead of the India vs England match and was subsequently ruled out of the remainder of the tournament with a fracture on his left toe.

Pakistan were knocked out of the group stages of the tournament and India lost in the semifinal against New Zealand. In the final, England beat New Zealand to win their maiden ODI World Cup.