Mohammad Shami, India’s only Muslim player in the T20 World Cup squad, received a barrage of online abuse following the humiliating loss to Pakistan on Sunday.
Despite the fact that captain Virat Kohli admitted that Pakistan outplayed them, Indian Twitter believed the 31-year-old fast bowler sold out his country during the game.
Shami received hundreds of messages on his Instagram account calling him a traitor and demanding that he be kicked off the Indian team.
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Similar scenes were witnessed on Twitter, where Indians singled him out and referred to him as a match-fixer.
However, many former cricketers, fans, and politicians backed him up, urging the public not to hurl insults.
Sachin Tendulkar, India’s all-time batting great, expressed his support for Shami and encouraged his fans to do the same.
Pakistan’s victory, on the other hand, was celebrated with firecrackers and Pakistan Zindabad slogans in parts of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (JK).
In response to the news, Gautam Gambhir, a former India Test cricketer who is now an MP for the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said it was “shameful” that people were celebrating Pakistan’s victory.
The local media also reported a number of violent incidents against native Muslim citizens on Sunday night, after Pakistan broke India’s World Cup hoodoo. Some students in India’s Punjab state claimed to have been beaten up by BJP goons.
“Dozens of men armed with hockey sticks and batons attacked them as we watched the final stages of the game,” AFP reported from students at an IT institute.
“We are now safe, and we have the support of our college.” But this was not at all what we expected. “And we’re Indians,” he added.
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