• Home
  • Who Said What
  • India Always Lost To Pakistan Abdul Razzaq Makes Big Claims Ahead Of World Cup 2023

'India Always Lost To Pakistan…,' Abdul Razzaq Makes Big Claims Ahead Of World Cup 2023

image-ljvin101Abdul Razzaq with Shahid Afridi during a training session in 2012 (Twitter)

Team India and Pakistan are all set to resume their white-ball rivalry at the upcoming Asia Cup and World Cup events. The last time these two nations faced each other was at the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, where a Virat Kohli-inspired Indian team emerged victorious in a last-ball thriller.

While their rivalry holds a significant weight in cricketing folklore, the two teams hardly go up against each other owing to prevailing political tensions. Moreover, their bilateral meetings have been completely scrapped since January 2013, and their matches have been confined to only multi-nation tournaments like Asia Cups and World Cups since then.

Interestingly, bilateral competitions involving India and Pakistan were also scrapped after 1998 owing to similar reasons. Rivalry ultimately resumed in 2004 when a Sourav Ganguly-led Indian team toured Pakistan to register historic wins in both, ODI and Test series.

While a brief bilateral halt from 1998 onwards was caused owing to their worsening political ties, former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq believes that Team India had boycotted their neighbours out of fear of losing.

Razzaq claims India always lost in 1997-98, stats say otherwise

Abdul Razzaq has claimed that the Indian team always lost out to Pakistan during the 1997-98 period. The former all-rounder also cited it as a reason behind Team India’s subsequent bilateral boycott of Pakistan.

While speaking on EHCricket, he said:

“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. Now, 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.”

As it turns out, both India and Pakistan went up against each other 21 times in ODIs in the years 1997 and 1998. Statistically, their head-to-head records stood pretty much balanced during the two-year period with Pakistan winning 10 of them as opposed to India’s nine wins. The other two fixtures ended without a result.

The India vs Pakistan rivalry will see its resumption after a year-long break at the Asia Cup 2023, scheduled to be played in September. They will then clash at the subsequent ODI World Cup 2023 in India.