WATCH: “Naam Mita do Babar ka!” – Indian crowd starts a demeaning chant towards Pakistan skipper Babar Azam at the Narendra Modi Stadium

The chants had deep political motive behind.

WATCH: “Naam Mita do Babar ka!” – Indian crowd starts a demeaning chant towards Pakistan skipper Babar Azam at the Narendra Modi Stadium

The crowd at Narendra Modi Stadium start demeaning chants against Pakistan and Babar Azam (Images via ICC and BCCI)

The India-Pakistan rivalry is the biggest in cricket not just because of cricketing reasons but for many more reasons. The political dynamics between the two countries also spark interest when the two teams play and a testimony to this was seen during the league match between the two teams at the 2023 ODI World Cup. 

Being played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the stadium was full of Indian fans which meant a lot of Pakistan bashing. While the fans were just cheering for their team at first, it slowly turned into anti-Pakistan chants in a matter of a few hours. There were different sorts of demeaning chants made as Pakistan batted in front of a pro-India and not a pro-cricket packed crowd. 

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Along with the entire Pakistan team, their captain Babar Azam was also targeted by the fans at the stadium who brought out some demeaning chants. A section of fans brought out “Tel lagakar dabar ka, naam mita do Babar ka (Use Dabur’s oil and end Babar’s name)” chants when the Pakistan captain was batting. 

To those unversed, this chant is associated with the demolishing of the Babri Masjid in 1992 which was led by the same political party currently in power in India. There were a few other demanding chants as well. 

Also Read: WATCH: Hardik Pandya chanting some ‘magical mantra’ moments before dismissing Imam-Ul-Haq? Video discloses the truth

Babar Azam stands tall for his team but Pakistan succumb

While the Indian fans left no chance to troll Babar Azam, the Pakistan captain paid no heed to them and stood tall for his team in the crunch game. Azam scored a half-century and stitched an 82-run partnership for the third wicket after India made early inroads. However, his innings was ended by Mohammed Siraj who cleaned the batter up.

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Mohammed Siraj celebrates Babar Azam’s wicket (Image via BCCI)

This wicket of Azam gave India an opening into the weak Pakistan middle order. Soon after Azam was dismissed, Pakistan lost Saud Shakeel and Iftikhar Ahmed in quick succession. Kuldeep Yadav accounted for both the batters. Mohammad Rizwan (49 off 69) and Shadab Khan also departed quickly as Jasprit Bumrah cleaned them up. Soon, Pakistan got bundled out for 191. All of India’s bowlers except for Shardul Thakur took 2 wickets apiece.

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