Shadab Khan prioritizes World Cup victory over defeating India

The highly anticipated India-Pakistan match at the 2023 World Cup is scheduled to take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 15.

In an exclusive interview with Cricket Pakistan, Shadab Khan stated that with only a few months left to the World Cup, the excitement bar is rather elevated to a sufficient level; however, face off with India comes with a different pressure altogether. Adding to it, the 24-year-old expressed his preference for winning the mega event than only bagging a victory against the arch-rivals.

"Playing against India comes with a different sense of joy. The pressure overall is also different. Now when we have to go there, it will be their home ground - the crowd will be against us. However, we are going there to play in the World Cup, so we should think about it, and not only about India, because if we win against India and lose the World Cup, then there's no benefit of it," Shadab said.

"In my opinion, even if we lose from India but end up winning the World Cup, it's a win-win because that is our main aim," he added.

Indo-Pakistan matches are super intense, and you can easily cut the tension with a knife. However, the spinner seems to think otherwise and is eyeing the larger piece of the pie.

If we talk about head-to-head stats between Pakistan and India in the ODI World Cup, they sing a sad tale for Pakistan and a happy tale for India. India and Pakistan have faced each other for a total of seven times at the ICC ODI World Cup, and India has come successful each time.