They came to the party on the big stage and literally dismantled India : Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid, former Indian cricketer and ESPNcricinfo Match Day panelist on Pakistan’s victory over India in the ICC Champions Trophy Final on the ESPNcricinfo Match Day show.

Yeah, an exceptional day, it was a superb performance and I guess everything worked for them right from the beginning. They batted well, they bowled well, the fielding was good as well, and it was an exceptional day, they really came to the party on the big stage and really like you said, literally dismantled India on the big stage. We would’ve never have seen it, and credit to them and credit to the leadership and team and the management, and the way they performed. I guess we got to see what the potential in this Pakistan team is all about.

On Leadership in the Pakistan team

Sarfaraz Ahmed was good in terms of leading by example as well, to get that 61 under pressure against Sri Lanka in a huge game. To come in when it looked like another performance where Pakistan would chase just 200 plus, they should have collapsed in the middle, and in need of someone to just step up, and the captain steps up and he looked good under pressure, he’s look very good behind the stumps and he’s looked quite good tactically as well at times. He’s a young captain, only learning, probably his second or third series as captain, so a brave decision by the Pakistani selectors as well to give him that opportunity to lead, despite some of the senior players being there and good on them, he’s done a really good job, he’s been able to inspire the team against that loss against India. What it is that him and Micky Arthur have done has obviously worked, gone from strength to strength and been able to put up their best performance on the day that it really mattered.