Monday, September 29, 2025

India–Pakistan Cricket Match 2025

                                

The India–Pakistan cricket rivalry is one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world. Showdowns between the teams are considered some of the biggest matches in the world, and are among the most-viewed sport games.

India has won 12 International Cricket Council tournaments compared to Pakistan's 5. At senior level, India has won 7 ICC trophies (2 Cricket World Cup, 2 T20 World Cup, 3 Champions Trophy), while Pakistan has won 3 (1 Cricket World Cup, 1 T20 World Cup, and 1 Champions Trophy). India has overwhelmingly dominated Pakistan in ICC World Cups, winning 15 out of 16 matches played, this includes an 8-0 lead at the 50-over ODI World Cups and 7-1 lead in the T-20 World Cups.

The tense relations between the two nations, resulting from bitter diplomatic relations and conflict that originated during the Partition of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947, the Indo-Pakistani Wars, and the Kashmir conflict, laid the foundations for the emergence of a fierce sporting rivalry between the two nations who had shared a common cricketing heritage.

The two sides first played in 1952, when Pakistan toured India. Tests and, later, limited overs series have been played ever since, although a number of planned tours by both sides have been cancelled or aborted due to political factors. No cricket was played between the two countries between 1962 and 1977 due to two major wars in 1965 and 1971, and the 1999 Kargil War and the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks have also interrupted cricketing ties between the two nations.

The growth of large expatriate populations from both countries across the world led to neutral venues, including the United Arab Emirates and Canada, hosting bilateral and multilateral One Day International (ODI) series involving the two teams and the teams have met during International Cricket Council (ICC) competitions. Tickets for matches in which the two teams play each other at international competitions are in high demand, with over 800,000 applications for tickets made for the 2019 Cricket World Cup meeting between the two sides;[5][6] the television transmission of the match was watched by 273 million viewers.

Players from both teams routinely face extreme pressure to win and are threatened by extreme reactions in defeat. Extreme fan reactions to defeats in key matches have been recorded, with a limited degree of hooliganism. At the same time, India–Pakistan matches have also offered opportunities for cricket diplomacy as a means to improve relations between the two countries, allowing heads of state and cricket followers from either country to travel to the other to watch the matches.

The last series played by both teams was the 2007 Test and ODI series played. However, following the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, which was orchestrated by Pakistan based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, India suspended the planned 2009 series, and all future engagements against Pakistan. The attack eventually led to detrimental consequences for both nations, in diplomacy and cricket. Since then, as both teams don't play in bilateral series and meet only in multi-nation tournaments, the heat of the rivalry has faded quite a lot with India emerging as the winner on most occasions prompting Indian Captain Suryakumar Yadav to say that it isn't a rivalry anymore.

History-                                                                                                                                                          See also: India–Pakistan relations and Cricket in South Asia.                                                                      The Partition of British India in 1947 that led to the creation of independent Indian and Pakistani states was characterised by bloody conflict between ethnic groups that left one million people dead and led to the mass-migration of an estimated ten million people between either nation. The legacy of Partition and subsequent territorial disputes have helped create heated rivalries in field hockey, association football, and especially in cricket, which had been developed during British colonial rule and is the most popular sport in both nations.

Captains Abdul Kardar of Pakistan (left) and Lala Amarnath of India (right) with Indian President Rajendra Prasad (center) on the day of the first test, 16 October 1952

Pakistan became a member of the Imperial Cricket Conference (now the International Cricket Council) in 1948,[A] becoming a Full Member[B] in July 1952.[C] Their tour of India later the same year saw the team play their first Test matches. They lost the first Test in Delhi to India, but won the second Test in Lucknow, which led to an angry reaction from the home crowd against the Indian players. India clinched the Test series after winning the third Test in Bombay, but the intense pressure affected the players of both teams to the point that they pursued mainly defensive tactics that led to drawn matches and whole series without a victory. When India toured Pakistan in 1955, thousands of Indian fans were granted visas to go to the Pakistani city of Lahore to watch the Test match, but both the 1955 series and Pakistan's tour of India in 1961 ended in drawn series, with neither team being able to win a single Test match. Complaints about the fairness of umpires became routine.

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and subsequent War of 1971 put a hold on matches between the two sides that lasted till 1978, when India toured Pakistan and cricket between the two countries resumed for a brief period. In the post-1971 period, politics became a direct factor in the holding of cricketing events. India has suspended cricketing ties with Pakistan several times following terrorist attacks or other hostilities. The resumption of cricketing ties in 1978 came with the emergence of heads of government in both India and Pakistan who were not directly connected with the 1971 war and coincided with their formal initiatives to normalise bilateral relations.

In the late 1980s and for most of the 1990s, India and Pakistan played each other only at neutral venues such as Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and in the Canadian city of Toronto, where large audiences of expatriates regularly watched matches between the sides. The series between the teams in Canada in the 1990s and early 2000s were officially known as the "Friendship Cup". Sharjah, even though a neutral venue, was considered as the "back yard of Pakistan" given the close proximity and the massive support the team generated.

The rise of multinational competitions, such as the Cricket World Cup, ICC T20 World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy, the Austral-Asia Cup, and the Asia Cup led to more regular, albeit briefer, contests between the two sides.

Anil Kumble became the second bowler in cricket history to take ten wickets in an innings in a match against Pakistan in 1999

In 1999, immediately following Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's historic visit to Pakistan, the Pakistani team toured India for a series of Test matches and One Day Internationals. The Kargil War later in the year caused tensions between the countries and cricket was again suspended. Vajpayee's peace initiative of 2003 led to India touring Pakistan after a gap of almost 15 years. Subsequent exchange tours were held in January to February 2006 in Pakistan and November to December 2007 in India. However, the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai led to the suspension of India's planned tour of Pakistan in 2009 and all future engagements in Pakistan. India has refused to play any form of series against Pakistan since then.

Play from the last Test Match meeting between India and Pakistan, Bangalore, December 2007.

The 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Lahore led to the suspension of international tours of Pakistan, with no Test series played in the country for a decade and Pakistan was removed as a co-host for the 2011 Cricket World Cup which had been due to be played across the Indian subcontinent.[D] India and Pakistan qualified for the first semi-final of the tournament and the Indian government invited the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to watch the match along with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh.

The second match of the series, Kolkata, January 2013.                                                                              India and Pakistan during the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.

Bilateral ties finally resumed when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) invited the Pakistan national team to tour India for three ODIs and two T20Is in December 2012. In June 2014, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced that an agreement to play six bilateral series across eight years between the two teams had reached. After lengthy negotiations involving offers and counter-offers on the venues and scheduling of the first of these series in December 2015, the boards were unable to reach an agreement. In May 2017, the BCCI accounted that it would need approval from the Indian government before a bilateral series could go ahead. There was no further progress, despite members of both boards meeting in Dubai to discuss the matter.

In October 2021, during the T20 World Cup, the teams played their 200th international match against each other. Pakistan won the fixture by ten wickets, their first in 13 attempts against India in World Cup tournaments of either format.

In October 2021, following a meeting with the ACC, Ramiz Raja confirmed that Pakistan would host the Asia Cup in 2023, with Sri Lanka hosting the 2022 edition. In October 2022, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary and ACC President Jay Shah announced that India would not travel to Pakistan, citing security concerns, and that the Asia Cup 2023 would take place in a neutral venue. In December 2022, the then PCB chairman Ramiz Raja said that Pakistan might consider pulling out of the tournament if their hosting rights were withdrawn because of India's unwillingness to travel to Pakistan. The PCB had threatened to boycott the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused to send a team to the Asia Cup. This issue was later resolved, and Pakistan eventually participated in the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India.

Virat Kohli is the only player to win Player of the Match vs Pakistan in all ICC formats events

In January 2023, ACC confirmed the teams and groups of the Asia Cup, with both India and Pakistan taking part. In March 2023, it was proposed that Pakistan remain as hosts and that all India matches - including at least two India-Pakistan contests - would be played at a neutral venue yet to be confirmed. The hybrid model proposed by Pakistan was rejected by Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In response, PCB Chairman Najam Sethi proposed two options. The first option was that India play all their matches at a neutral venue with Pakistan hosting the rest of the teams. The second option was that four matches in the group stage take place in Pakistan whereas the second phase, in which matches played by the Indian team followed by the next stage matches including the final, be played at a neutral venue. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh agreed to the second option. On 15 June 2023, the Asian Cricket Council announced that the tournament would be organized in a hybrid model with four matches being held in Pakistan, and the remaining nine in Sri Lanka.

India and Pakistan met twice in this Asia Cup. Though the first match in the Group stage yielded a no result due to rain, India defeated Pakistan by an enormous margin in the Super Four clash between the 2 sides, scoring 356 for the loss of only 2 wickets. India in this match not only set their highest-ever score in ODI cricket against Pakistan, but also defeated them with the highest ever run margin of 228 runs, bundling Pakistan out for 128. India would eventually go on to win this Asia Cup, while Pakistan would be knocked out in the super-fours round. India won the match against Pakistan at the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup by 6 runs, which was also the first ICC tournament to be held in United States of America. Again India defeated Pakistan this time in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy by 6 wickets with Virat Kohli scoring his 51st century in ODI cricket.





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