Pakistan vs India — cricket's oldest political rivalry

Pakistan vs India is the most-watched fixture in world cricket. Estimated TV audiences for the bilateral games of the 1990s and 2000s and the ICC-tournament games of the 2010s and 2020s have routinely topped 500 million worldwide. The cricket is one part of the story. The politics is the other.

All-time record

	Pakistan	India
Tests	9	12 (37 drawn)
ODIs	73	57
T20Is	6	13
World Cups (ODI)	0	8
T20 World Cups	1	6
Champions Trophy	2	3
Total all formats	91	99

The all-format record shows India slightly ahead. The Test record is the most lopsided — India have won three times as many decisive Tests since 1990. The ODI record actually favours Pakistan if you include pre-2000 cricket, but India have closed the gap and overtaken in the post-2010 era.

The bilateral pause

The two countries have not played a bilateral Test series since 2008 and have played extremely limited bilateral white-ball cricket since the Mumbai attacks. The pause is political. The PCB and the BCCI have both said they would play bilateral cricket if their respective governments cleared it. Neither has, consistently, since 2012-13.

The result is that Pakistan vs India happens only in ICC tournaments (the World Cup, T20 World Cup, Champions Trophy, Asia Cup). Across 2013-2025 the two sides played 21 times across all ICC events and bilateral exceptions. India won 13. Pakistan won 8.

ICC World Cup history

The ODI World Cup record between the teams is the single most one-sided record in major cricket. India have won all eight World Cup matches between the sides since the first one in 1992. The Pakistani teams of the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s all entered World Cup matches against India as favourites multiple times and all lost.

The T20 World Cup record is closer. Pakistan won the famous 2007 group game (and India won the 2007 final between the sides). India have won the next several T20 World Cup matchups including 2022 (Virat Kohli’s 82 not out at the MCG) and 2024.

The Asia Cup record is even closer than the T20 World Cup record. Pakistan and India have alternated wins in the modern era, with Pakistan winning the 2022 Sharjah Super Four match and India winning the 2023 final.

Modern key performers

For Pakistan (active era):

Babar Azam. Pakistan’s most successful batter against India in white-ball cricket since 2018. Averages 38 in ODIs and 36 in T20Is against them.
Shaheen Afridi. The first-over dismissal of Rohit Sharma in the 2021 T20 World Cup remains one of the iconic moments in the rivalry’s modern era.
Mohammad Rizwan. Played the 2021 T20 World Cup chase innings (79 not out) that delivered Pakistan their first T20 World Cup win against India.

For India (active era):

Virat Kohli. Averages over 50 against Pakistan across white-ball formats. The 82 not out at the MCG in 2022 is the modern reference innings.
Jasprit Bumrah. Has dismissed Babar Azam more times than any other bowler in white-ball internationals across 2018-25.
Rohit Sharma. Pakistan’s most-faced India captain across white-ball cricket in the 2020s.

The atmosphere

The atmosphere at Pakistan-India matches is unlike anything else in cricket. The stadiums sell out in minutes. The TV ratings spike. Stadium-sound studies (PCB and BCCI both publish them) show consistent crowd-noise readings that exceed any other fixture in cricket by 8-12 decibels.

The pressure on players from both sides is correspondingly heavy. Veteran captains from both nations have written publicly about the unique mental load of leading their team out against the other.

Where the rivalry stands in 2026

The current state is that bilateral cricket remains paused but ICC-tournament matchups continue. The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy (hosted in Pakistan, with India’s matches played in the UAE under an agreed hybrid model) produced one Pakistan-India fixture which India won by seven wickets.

The next confirmed matchup is the 2026 Asia Cup (location TBC at time of writing). The PSL 2026 final, ironically, didn’t involve any Indian players or context, but Indian cricket media coverage of it was extensive.

For Pakistani fans, the honest assessment is that the rivalry sits in an unequal place right now. India have the better recent record, the deeper white-ball squad, the higher T20 World Cup ceiling. The case for Pakistan as competitive: a single match against the right India side, on the right day, with Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah both fit and Babar Azam in red-hot form, is a match Pakistan can absolutely win.

That is, ultimately, the appeal of this rivalry. Every individual fixture is a coin flip even when the overall trend isn’t.

Source: Pakistan vs India cricket – Wikipedia