Pakistan: When India and Pakistan compete in the ODI World Cup, it will be their first encounter in almost a year of men's cricket. The historic match is slated to take place at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi arena, which presently holds the record for having the most seats available for a cricket arena. Pakistan will go to India for the first time since their 2016 tour for the T20 World Cup at the major event.

Due to political difficulties between the countries, meetings between the two teams are limited to ICC tournaments. While India is still unbeaten in the ODI World Cup, Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets in the T20 World Cup, giving them their first victory over their bitter rivals. The T20 World Cup match between the two teams last year came to an exciting conclusion with India winning by four wickets.

This year's Asia Cup will also feature a match between India and Pakistan, and as both teams prepare for their respective tours of Sri Lanka and the West Indies, former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq has made a surprising statement.

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Razzaq asserted that one reason India and Pakistan didn't play one other frequently in 1997–98 was because the latter would primarily suffer defeats while arguing for the revival of bilateral cricketing ties between the two nations.

“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,” Razzaq told.

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“Both teams are good. You can't say Pakistan team is weak. You see the Ashes series, can you point out which team is better? The team which performs wins, as simple as that. We have to get out of this and play matches, series against each other,” Razzaq further said.

Due to rising political tensions, there were no bilateral matches between the two teams until 2004 after their five-ODI bilateral series in Canada. Later that year, a Sourav Ganguly-led Team India visited Pakistan, winning 3-2 in the one-day internationals before defeating the hosts 2-1 in the test match.

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