ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Pakistan game felt like a practice match, says Harbhajan Singh

What’s the story?

Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh said that India’s opening game against Pakistan in the ICC Champion’s Trophy 2017 was almost like a practice match for the former, while speaking about the same with India Today.

He also believes that Pakistan are just not the same high-intensity, ruthless side that they were around 15 years ago and that it would take them long to touch upon those standards again.

"It felt like a practice game to be honest. There wasn't any competition, Pakistan is not the same side anymore. It will take them, I don't know what to, get back to what they were about 15 years back. It's a sad feeling to see where they are going with their cricket,” the 36-year-old said.

In case you didn’t know...

India outclassed Pakistan in all three aspects of the game in their high-profile clash against their arch-rivals on Sunday.

Half centuries from Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh, a top bowling display from Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah along with an all-round performance from Hardik Pandya snatched the game right away from Pakistan’s bruised and relatively weaker hands.

The match ended with India galloping to its largest ever Champions Trophy victory, that added up to a margin of 124 runs between the two teams.

The details

While talking about India’s performance in the match, Singh was full of praise. He expressed his happiness over his country’s strong overall performance and said that things have been going well for the Virat Kohli-led side.

He concluded that he is looking forward to India’s match against South Africa, which is scheduled to be played on the June 11 at the Oval in London.

What next?

Pakistan’s road to resurgence is laden with uncertainty, but the first step towards that would be to put up a strong performance in their next encounter against South Africa, who are one of the favourites to lift the trophy this year.

Author’s take

The intensity of the India-Pakistan rivalry has certainly descended in the past few years and inability of the Pakistan players to match up to India’s standards has been one of the main reasons for it.

It is no longer a competition between two strong, evenly-matched sides but has become completely one-sided in the last half decade.