Pakistani cricketers won a lot of hearts when they offered dinner to an Indian cabbie in Australia. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah has spoken about the episode and he reveals the entire sequence of events which took place.
Pakistani cricketers won a lot of hearts when they offered dinner to an Indian cabbie in Australia. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah has spoken about the episode and he reveals the entire sequence of events which took place. “We were not aware of any Indian or Pakistani restaurants in Brisbane. So when we five teammates stepped out — Imran Khan, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Musa, Shaheen Shah Afridi and I — we called a taxi,” Yasir Shah said in a video shared by the Pakistan Cricket Board.
“The driver was a Paaji from India. We told him to take us to a nice restaurant. He recognised us and we chit chatted in Urdu about cricket. He refused to take the fare from us when we reached the restaurant. I told him, ‘You either have to take the fare or have dinner with us.’ So he agreed for the dinner.
“He was very happy that we invited him to dinner and also clicked pictures with us.”
Pakistan have struggled in the ongoing tour. They lost the T20I series and were shunted away by a dominant Australian side in the first Test at Brisbane by an innings and 5 runs. Yasir Shah bowled 48.4 overs and picked up 4 wickets but this performance did not count as David Warner and Marnus Labuschange powered Australia to 580 runs in the first innings.
“I think that was the missed opportunity. Then when we came out to bowl we didn’t build enough pressure. Babar and Rizwan showed the way today and also Shan played really well. It’s always tough leaving Abbas out. He’s always performed well for us. But these three who played had been bowling exceptionally well. They bowled phenomenally against a very good Australia A side. I think Abbas is always there for us. We’ll look at the balance in the next couple of days. Naseem was bowling well. He looked very fit. We don’t want him to break obviously. He is very young. We want him to have a long career. Yes we want him badly but we had to manage him accordingly,” Pakistan captain Azhar Ali said after the match.
