An in-form Pakistan will take on Australia on Thursday evening in the second semi-final of the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at the Dubai International Stadium. Ahead of the start of the game, cricketer-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra came up with satirical video to preview the match. The video of Chopra’s unorthodox and entertaining preview was posted on Koo. The 59-second clip starts with Chopra describing what would Australia say to Pakistan if they were to discuss this fixture.
Here is how Chopra described the mock-conversation between Australia and Pakistan:
Australia to Pakistan: “Ohh, 87 ka semi-final yaad hai? 99 final to nahi bhoole hoge, Lord’s ka maidan, 2010 ke semi-final, 2015 ka quarter final. (Do you remember the 1987 World Cup semi-final? Or the 1999 World Cup final at Lords? Or the 2010 semi-final, the 2015 quarter-final?)”
Australia: “Kabhi aaj tak ICC mukabalo me ek match jeete ho? Nahi jeete ho, yaar. (Have you ever defeated us in an ICC tournament? No, you haven’t)”
After that, a photo of former Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed flashes on the screen and is replaced by Babar Azam as the song ‘arre woh saal doosra tha, ye saal doosra hai‘ (that was a different year, this is a different year) plays in the background — Chopra’s way to describe the change in the Pakistan cricket team’s leadership.
The dramatisation does not end there as an aerial clip from a city plays out on the screen and a narrator says, “Khushamdeed ye doosra Pakistan hai. (This is a different Pakistan).”
Former Pakistan skipper and current Prime Minister of the country, Imran Khan, too, makes a brief appearance in the video as a clip from one of his rallies plays out on screen.
Chopra goes on to tell his viewers how this Pakistan side has not lost a single match in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 2016. He then returns to the conversation on Australia and Pakistan by using dialogues from the film ‘Chalaang’.
Australia: “Apni gali me to kutta bhi sher hota hai. (Even a dog behaves like a lion in its backyard)”
Pakistan: “Sahi bole aap, aur hum to hain hi sher (You are right. And we are lions anyway)”.
Chopra also talks about how both Australia and Pakistan are heavily reliant on their openers by using late Bollywood actor Raj Kumar’s famous dialogue from the film ‘Waqt’ – “Jinke apne ghar shishe ke bane ho, woh dusron pe patthar nahi pheka karte. (Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones at others)”
Chopra also reckoned that the match between Pakistan and Australia will be all about their pace attack as both sides have some lethal bowlers in the line-up in Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi, Josh Hazelwood, Mitchell Starc, among others.
Chopra finds the perfect way to end the video by using a dialogue from the movie ‘Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns’. The clip ends with the late Irrfan Khan saying, “Aap chahte ho na ki ye jung ho? Hogi, ghamasaan hogi, aapki kasam (You want this war to happen, right? A fierce war will happen, I swear on you).”