Pakistan cricket team's campaign at the ICC World Cup 2023 in India came to an end in the league stage. While the players and fans of Babar Azam's team were left disappointed, the squad itself got some good support in India despite facing backlash at some of the venues.
Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai welcomed the Men in Green with open arms and their games saw massive turnout as well.
Good support for Pakistanis in India
Majority of the players were playing in India for the first time in their careers, including captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Muhammad Rizwan.
Babar and Rizwan in particular, got the most love from Indian fans and one even urged the Pakistan team to tour India more often.
Rizwan gives funny reply to Indian fan
A video of a fan telling Rizwan to come to India again is going viral on social media. And so is Rizwan's reply to that fan.
"Sir aap log India aya kariye (Sir you all should keep coming to India)" the fan can be heard telling Rizwan, who replied with "aap visa diya kare (you should give us visas)".
Ahmedabad incidents leaves Pakistanis disappointed
Rizwan was referring to the delay in visas for Pakistan players, fans and journalists for the World Cup. Pakistan players arrived in India just a couple of days before their first warm-up game last month.
Fans and journalists who wanted to come across the border before the marquee clash against India also faced difficulties with only a handful of reporters getting visas to cover the match.
Pakistan players however, faced taunts in Ahmedabad during the clash against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Babar was booed while Rizwan was taunted with chants of "Jai Shri Ram" by a section of Indian fans which led to a furore on social media and the Pakistan cricketing fraternity which called for immediate action from the International Cricket Council and the BCCI.
But the ICC could not do anything about the incidents as their wasn't just one culprit who could be punished but several fans had heckled and taunted the Pakistani cricketers.
Rizwan however, thanked India for the love and support the Pakistan team received during their campaign.
"Got a lot of love from India's fans. Thank you India," Rizwan tweeted on Diwali.
