Waqar Younis reveals why Pakistan has been unable to beat India in World Cup over the years

Former Pakistan captain and paceman Waqar Younis' biggest regret in his career has been missing out on being part of the World Cup-winning team in 1992. Younis, a tearaway quick in his prime at the time, sustained an injury in the lead up to the tournament and had to miss out on what was a historic campaign for the team. He got a chance to make amends in 1996, but an Ajay Jadeja onslaught in the quarter-final against him ensured India's win over the arch-rivals.

Pakistan, who had lost to India even in the 1992 tournament, went on to succumb to yet another loss in the 1999 World Cup but Younis wasn't part of the team. In 2003 he was the captain of the side that posted a big total against the Indians, only for Sachin Tendulkar to completely destroy the Pakistanis. The saga of India's complete domination of the neighbours in the World Cup has continued with victories in 2011, 2015 and 2019 editions.

Younis spoke about what he thought was the reason behind Pakistan's inability to beat India in the showpiece event while speaking to fans on the Twitter platform @GloFansOfficial.

"Over the last few World Cups, Pakistan have not won against India. We did well in other formats, we did well in Test matches, but when it comes to World Cups and ODI Cricket, India has always had an upper hand on us. And they deserve it. I think they played better cricket than us," he said while answering a fan's question.

Younis pointed out that in many of the encounters Pakistan held sway for a while, only to lose control as they were unable to handle the pressure of the situation.

"I remember in Bangalore and back in I think that was in Pretoria in 2003. I remember most of them and I think I have played a couple of them. So they were a very good side and I think on that particular day they just came out with a very positive frame of mind, they played better cricket and played smartly. We did not play smartly; we had games in our hands. If you look at the World Cup in 2011 and then of course back in '96 also we had the game in our hand, but it is just, we… we just threw it away. It is hard to pinpoint why we do that, maybe, it's just the pressure of the World Cup now because it happens so many times, it is just the psychological pressure on us that we just cannot really win against them but yeah, it's very-very difficult to pinpoint on one thing," Waqar concluded.

Pakistan's victory in the final of the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy over India is their only major victory over the Indians in ICC tournaments. They had beaten India earlier as well in the Champions Trophy but that was nullified by damaging losses in the T20 World Cup tournaments over the years.