70 years of India-Pakistan cricket in three acts

On October 16, 1952, a little over five years after they became separate and independent nations, India and Pakistan played their first cricket match

On October 16, 1952, a little over five years after they became separate and independent nations, India and Pakistan played their first cricket match. It was a four-day Test in Delhi. It finished in three days, with an innings win for India. When the two countries square up at Melbourne in the T20 World Cup on Sunday, it will mark another chapter in 70 years of India-Pakistan cricket.

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The passionate, rousing and colourful rivalry has been marked by rich expression on the field, as well as long silences. It’s also swung both ways – Pakistan held the upper hand for a good part of the three decades when cricket between the two nations was more frequent; but post-2010, when Indian players became better travellers, India has been catching up.

Three acts of a rivalry

Across three formats — Tests, One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and T20s — India and Pakistan have played each other a total of 202 times. That’s an average of fewer than three matches a year. To put that in context, India has played more against Australia (271 matches) and England (259 matches). The current record reads 71 wins for India, and 88 for Pakistan, with remaining matches being tied, drawn, or no results.

By the decades, India-Pakistan cricket is principally a story in three acts. The first act is the three decades till the 1970s, when Tests were the only format and a draw was the outcome in about two-thirds of the matches. The second act consists of the three decades beginning the 1980s. As ODI cricket became dominant, the two sides played each other a lot more: at home, in Sharjah, and Toronto; in bilateral contests and multilateral tournaments, with Pakistan winning more. Towards the end of this decade, India started pulling back.

In the third act, which started in the 2010s, the two sides played less. But when they did, India won about 70% of the matches.

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Bilateral struggles, multilateral success

In bilateral series, India have a losing record against Pakistan. India’s record in tournaments where there are three-four teams — for example, tournaments in Sharjah in the 1980s and 1990s — is worse, averaging one win for every two losses.

It’s only in multilateral tournaments, featuring five teams or more, where India have dominated. Here, India’s record reads 20 wins and 13 losses. Put another way, India have won three matches for every two they have lost. In ODI world cups, it has never lost in seven matches. And, in the T20 World Cup, the scene of the latest contest, it has lost only once in six showdowns.

Bilateral contests between the two sides have been frozen since January 2013, and they have since been meeting only at multilateral events.

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The captains fantastic

India have had the most success against Pakistan with MS Dhoni at the helm. His record reads 17 wins and 8 losses. His tenure as captain also coincides with the post-2010 phase, when India were decidedly superior and contests in multilateral tournaments became the norm. When it comes to playing against Pakistan, Dhoni is a rarity among Indian captains.

Both sides have had five captains each who have collectedly led in about half the total contests between the two sides. Other than Dhoni, one has an even win-loss record (Sunil Gavaskar) and three have losing records (Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, and Sachin Tendulkar). By comparison, four of the five Pakistani captains in this set have winning records and the fifth one has an even record. Standing tall from both sides is Imran Khan, who leads both sides in matches captained (39 across all formats). Of these 39 matches, Pakistan won 23, while losing only 4.

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Cometh the hour…

Another area where Indian players differ from their Pakistani peers is batting. Data shows that prolific Pakistani batsmen raised their game in India-Pakistan games better than Indian players. Here, we have taken only ODI records. That’s because T20 matches between the two sides are too few (only 11) and the two sides have not played Tests since 2007. Averages of six of the top 10 ODI run-scorers for India dropped against Pakistan. The four who bucked this trend were MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh and Shikhar Dhawan — also a reflection of the dominance of the last decade-and-a-half.

By comparison, nine of the top 10 Pakistani players bettered their career average against India. Shoaib Malik, for example, saw his average jump from 35 to 47, and Javed Miandad from 42 to 52. However, those players are long gone. A new crop, led by Babar Azam, is taking charge. They will be looking to stop the Indian juggernaut against them in multilateral tournaments at the T20 World Cup, while India will be determined to assert their recent dominance.

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