Chopra questions absence of IND-PAK matches in World Test Championship

Former India opener Aakash Chopra has questioned the absence of India-Pakistan Tests in the ICC World Test Championship since its inception in 2019 and has called for a showdown between the two arch-rivals in the 2023-25 cycle.

Due to political tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian nations, India and Pakistan do not meet on the cricket field except in ICC events and in the Asia Cup. They have been regularly facing off in the ODI and T20 World Cups and in the Champions Trophy, and the format of the Asia Cup is such that it favours a minimum of two encounters between the two sides with the possibility of a third in the final.

The two sides, however, are yet to lock horns in the ICC World Test Championship, in which India have made it to the final of each of the first two editions. Chopra questioned the logic behind the two teams not playing against one another in an ICC event.

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“You don’t play against all teams. But this is WTC, it’s an ICC event. It has been 4 years now… can you imagine an ICC event without India vs Pakistan? This can never happen. It’s always at the start of the tournament so it gets off to a great start commercially. It gets the highest rating and people make money.



“So, is WTC not an ICC event? It’s an ICC mace, they host the final. So, all the matches that take place in the cycle should be in the purview of the ICC. It will be 6 years, and you didn’t have a single India-Pakistan series. This is also an ICC event. If it’s not, make it clear. Call it bilateral cricket and accept that you have made WTC just to glamorize Tests,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

The last time a bilateral contest involving the two sides took place was a decade ago when Pakistan toured India for three ODIs in the 2012-13 season. As for the Test format, the last time the two teams played a full series was in 2007, when Pakistan toured India for three Tests and five ODIs.

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