Sports brings the world together. No matter how big a rivalry is, fans always walk hand in hand. Even though India-Pakistan cricketing fans are arch-rivals during a match, they never fail to show the mutual respect they have for each other when the match is not on. In one such instance, during the ICC men’s T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan, fans made sure to greet Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik as ‘jijaji’ (brother-in-law).

The right-handed batter was fielding at the boundary line when fans behind him started calling him out as ‘jijaji’. In a video that was shared by Sania Mirza on her social media handle, Shoaib can be seen responding to the calls.

Watch the video here:

India’s tennis player Sania Mirza and Pakistan cricketer Shoaib tied the knot in 2010. They have a son named Izhaan Mirza Malik.

Since the marriage, Indian fans often greet Shoaib Malik as ‘jijaji’.

On the match front, Pakistan broke their World Cup jinx against arch-rivals India in style, handing them a 10-wicket defeat at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. After India struggled to put 151 on board, Pakistan openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, in terms of batting, made light work of the Indian bowling unit as they cruised to victory.

As for Malik, he was one of the oldest players in the playing XI. He will turn 40 in February next year. To put things in perspective, he began playing for Pakistan in the last century.

Malik made his ODI debut aged 17 in 199 against the West Indies. This was 22 years ago. When he made his debut, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of India in 1999, General Parvez Musharraf was not yet President of Pakistan and Bill Clinton was POTUS (President of the United States) and survivor of an impeachment trial.

Only three months had passed since the end of the Kargil war. 9/11 and the terror attack on the Indian Parliament would happen a full two years later.

There was no Facebook, no Twitter, and Google was pre-IPO. The first iPhone was almost a decade away. The world was nervous about Y2K.

India skipper Virat Kohli was 10 years old. Pakistan captain Babar Azam was 5.

Shoaib Malik, who was playing in his 6th T20 World Cup, captained the Pakistan cricket team in the first edition of the tournament in 2007.

In 2018, Shoaib Malik became the first male cricketer to play 100 T20 matches. He retired from Test cricket in 2015 and from ODIs in 2019, 20 years after his debut.