Ahead of the much-awaited India and Pakistan clash at ICC World Cup 2023, former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq made an interesting claim on the reason why India never played matches against Pakistan from 1997.
Why India Didn’t Play Against Pakistan After 1998
Their last encounter in the 2019 World Cup was a high-scoring affair with India achieving a huge victory in Manchester while Pakistan last visited India during the 2016 T20 World Cup.
Owing to political reasons, India and Pakistan stopped to tour each other and will clash only at ICC and Asia Cup events. The two sides first played in 1952, when Pakistan toured India.
“We share mutual respect and friendship. There’s only Indian team that doesn’t play against Pakistan. From 1997-98, they didn’t play much against us because we were too good, India always used to lose,” he said.
“Now, the situation has changed, we are in 2023, but we have to change our thinking. No team is big or small, the performance on the day matters,” he added.
The 43-year-old lauded India and Pakistan for their performances in international cricket. He also wants to see India and Pakistan play a bilateral series in the future.
Talking about how performances matter now rather than a team’s name, Razzaq said that both India and Pakistani teams are good and no one can say that the “Pakistan team is weak”.
“You see the Ashes series, can you point out which team is better? The team which performs wins, as simple as that. We have to get out of this and play matches, series against each other,” he continued.
In ICC events, both India and Pakistan have played 19 matches where India won 14 games and Pakistan won 4 games. Notably, Pakistan registered its first-ever win against India in a World Cup match during the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
While in Asia Cup, they both played 17 matches where India won 9 matches out of it and have the upper hand.
Before their clash in the ICC World Cup 2023, India and Pakistan will first clash at the Asia Cup 2023 scheduled to host by Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
