Cricket
India National Cricket Team vs Pakistan National Cricket Team
Know the full history of cricket rivalry between the India national cricket team vs Pakistan national cricket team. Get head-to-head and other stats.
Image Credits: Alex Davidson-ICC/ICC via Getty Images
England and Australia's cricket teams may have been the oldest international sides that played cricket regularly. Still, it is safe to say that no rivalry in cricket comes close to the India national cricket team vs Pakistan national cricket team.
It all started with the partition in 1947 which gave rise to bitter diplomatic relationships and numerous Indo-Pakistan wars ensued. With wars calming down, the sourness seeped into sporting events like hockey, football and most of all cricket - a hugely followed sport in both nations.
India vs Pakistan’s Hot & Cold Rivalry
The very first cricket match between India and Pakistan was played back in 1952 when Pakistan toured their neighbors after getting full membership from the International Cricket Council. However, political tensions soon followed between the two nations and there was no bilateral series between the sides from 1965 to 1971.
Two wars in ‘65 and ‘71 saw the two teams not playing any games till 1978, following which India toured Pakistan in 1978 to resume cricket for a brief period. However, politics became a huge factor in cricket post-1971 and after Pakistan’s 1979 tour of India was canceled owing to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, things further slowed down.
Cricket was still being played between the two nations until things worsened again during the Kargil War in 1999, which led the teams not to play any bilateral series for 15 long years before Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s peace initiative in 2003. But, even that didn’t go on for long as the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks again halted their games.
The bilateral series again resumed in 2012 as Pakistan toured for three ODIs and two T20Is, but that was the last time the two teams played outside of an ICC or ACC tournament. Thereafter, the BCCI and PCB tried reaching multiple agreements but to no avail
India vs Pakistan - Head-to-Head Record (Tests, ODIs & T20Is)
India vs Pakistan - Head-to-Head Record (Tests, ODIs & T20Is)
| Formats | Matches | India won | Pakistan won | Draw / No Result |
| Test | 59 | 9 | 12 | 38 |
| ODI | 135 | 57 | 73 | 5 |
| T20I | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 |
| Total | 207 | 75 | 88 | 44 |
India and Pakistan have played in 207 cricket matches across all formats with Pakistan winning 88 matches and India 75 of them. The Men in Green have dominated the head-to-head in Tests and ODIs whereas India has swapped away Pakistan in T20Is.
India and Pakistan have played 15 Test series so far apart from the one-off match in the Asian Test Championship in 1999. While India hosted eight series and 32 matches, seven series and 26 matches were played in Pakistan as well. While both have won four series each, Pakistan has more Test match wins on Indian soil.
The bilateral series again resumed in 2012 as Pakistan toured for three ODIs and two T20Is, but that was the last time the two teams played outside of an ICC or ACC tournament. Thereafter, the BCCI and PCB tried reaching multiple agreements but to no avail.
Image Credits: ISHARA S.KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images
India vs Pakistan - Head-to-Head Record (Tests, ODIs & T20Is)
India vs Pakistan - Head-to-Head Record (Tests, ODIs & T20Is)
| Formats | Matches | India won | Pakistan won | Draw / No Result |
| Test | 59 | 9 | 12 | 38 |
| ODI | 135 | 57 | 73 | 5 |
| T20I | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 |
| Total | 207 | 75 | 88 | 44 |
India and Pakistan have played in 207 cricket matches across all formats with Pakistan winning 88 matches and India 75 of them. The Men in Green have dominated the head-to-head in Tests and ODIs whereas India has swapped away Pakistan in T20Is.
Image Credit: PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images
India and Pakistan have played 15 Test series so far apart from the one-off match in the Asian Test Championship in 1999. While India hosted eight series and 32 matches, seven series and 26 matches were played in Pakistan as well. While both have won four series each, Pakistan has more Test match wins on Indian soil.
India vs Pakistan - ICC tournaments
India vs Pakistan - ICC tournaments
| Tournaments | Matches | India won | Pakistan won | Draw / No result |
| World Cup | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| T20 World Cup | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Champions Trophy | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| World Test Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 21 | 16 | 4 | 1 |
While Pakistan have easily been the better side in bilateral series, India has completely white washed their neighbors in most ICC tournaments. While Pakistan hasn’t managed to win a single game out of their eight encounters with India in ODI World Cups, they could produce just one victory in the T20I World Cup out of eight matches.
Pakistan has won two matches against India in the ICC Champions Trophy, one of which was the famous 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final game.
India has been a more successful team when it comes to ICC tournaments as well, with the Men in Blue winning 11 ICC tournaments compared to Pakistan’s five. In only the senior level, India has six ICC trophies (2 Cricket World Cups, 2 Champions Trophy, and 2 T20 World Cups), while Pakistan has won three (1 Cricket World Cup, 1 Champions Trophy, 1 T20 World Cup).
India vs Pakistan - ACC tournaments
India vs Pakistan - ACC tournaments
| Tournament | Matches | India won | Pakistan won | Draw/No result |
| Asia Cup ODI | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 |
| Asia Cup Twenty20 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Asian Test Championship | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 19 | 10 | 7 | 2 |
The needle doesn’t sway the other way in Asian tournaments as well, with India winning 10 of the 19 matches played against Pakistan in ACC tournaments. India has won eight of the 15 games they played against Pakistan in Asia Cup ODIs while winning two of the three T20Is in Asia Cup.
India vs Pakistan - Key Players
Interestingly, India has given the world some of the best batsmen while Pakistan has the best bowlers. While Pakistan has produced bowlers like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Imran Khan, Shoaib Akhtar and more, India has produced players like Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid and many others, all of whom made this rivalry reach epic proportions.
Pakistan: Key Players
Wasim Akram
Fondly called the Sultan of Swing, former Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram was the best swing bowler in the world during his era. His unparalleled control of the ball and affinity to take crucial wickets in important times made Pakistan a superpower in world cricket in the 90s and early 2000s.
Akram has 502 ODI wickets and 414 Test wickets to his name. He was one of Pakistan’s main weapons against India as well, taking 60 wickets in 48 ODIs and 45 wickets in 12 Tests against his country’s archrivals. His best ODI bowling figure against India is 4/35, which came during a bilateral series in Canada in 1996. During the game in Toronto, Akram ran through India’s batting order taking wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, Nayan Mongia, Ajay Jadeja and Javagal Srinath.
His best figures against India in Tests came in only his second Test game in 1987, when Akram took the wickets of Kris Srikkanth, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Raju Kulkarni and Maninder Singh at the Eden Gardens.
Saqlain Mushtaq
Despite having lethal bowlers like Younis and Akhtar, who terrorized Indian batters for the longest time, it was Saqlain Mushtaq who took the second-highest number of wickets against India.
Mushtaq took 208 wickets in Tests and 288 scalps in ODIs. His best outing against India came in 1996 in Canada when the spinner took the wickets of Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh, Abey Kuruvilla and Harvinder Singh conceding just 45 runs. In Tests, Mushtaq took five wickets while conceding just 93 runs against India in Chennai. That match saw the leggie take a five-fer in the other innings as well, tallying 10 wickets across two innings.
Inzamam-ul-Haq
Pakistan’s best bet with the bat against India was former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, who tallied 11,739 runs in ODIs and 8,830 runs in Tests. Against India, the middle-order batter scored 2,403 runs in the ODI averaging 43.69. His best outing against the Men in Blue came in 2004 when he scored 124 runs in Lahore albeit in a losing cause.
In Tests, Inzamam scored 1,209 runs against India averaging 58.04. His best inning came in 2005 in Bengaluru, when the skipper batted alongside a stupendous Younus Khan to score 184 runs to lead his side to a 168-run victory.
India: Key Players
Sachin Tendulkar
No Indian batsman has played as many matches against Pakistan as Sachin Tendulkar, the greatest cricket player. He scored 18,426 runs in ODIs with an average of 44.83, and 2526 of those runs came against the neighbors. While Tendulkar’s career is littered with many memorable knocks against Pakistan, the best came in 2004. Touring Pakistan in 2004, the Master Blaster scored a knock of 141 runs in Rawalpindi, although the visitors lost that game.
Tendulkar tallied 15,921 runs in Tests with an average of 53.78 and 1,057 of those runs came against Pakistan. He averaged 42.28 against the Men in Green and his best knock in the longest format came during 2004 itself. In the same match that saw Virender Sehwag score the historic 309 runs, Tendulkar made his highest-ever score of 194* against Pakistan in Multan.
Rahul Dravid
Unfortunately, modern greats like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma haven’t played against Pakistan enough to leave a mark in India-Pakistan history. Before them, barring Sachin Tendulkar, a certain Rahul Dravid was often a thorn in Pakistan’s path.
“The Wall”, as he was fondly called, Dravid tallied 10,889 runs in ODIs and 1899 of those runs came against Pakistan. His best outing against Pakistan in 50-over cricket came in 1997 when Dravid scored 107 runs in the Pepsi Independence Cup at Chennai.
Dravid was a much better Test batter than he was in ODIs. The longest format saw the middle-order batsman accumulate 13,288 runs and 1236 runs came against Pakistan. His best Test tally of 270 runs came against Pakistan itself, which was in Rawalpindi during India’s 2004 tour. India had won that match by 131 runs.
Mohammad Azharuddin
The former Indian skipper scored 9,378 runs in ODIs and 1657 runs against Pakistan. His best knock against them was a 101-run innings that came in Toronto in 1998. India, however, had lost the match.
Azharuddin could play very few Test matches, 99 to be exact, and he tallied 6215 runs in them. He still managed 769 runs against Pakistan in the longest format, with his highest being 141 runs, which came in only his second Test match in 1987. The match ended in a draw.
FAQs
The highest ODI total between India and Pakistan is 356 runs that India tallied in Visakhapatnam on April 5, 2005.
The last time India played in Pakistan was in 2008, which was in the Asia Cup. The match was against Sri Lanka and India lost the final match by 100 runs.
An M.A. in English Literature, Subhayan is an experienced journalist and sports writer. Having worked as a journalist at Hindustan Times, Subhayan covered diverse beats including sports, education, and health, showcasing his versatility and in-depth understanding of various subjects.