Pakistan has refused to play India in upcoming T20 World Cup 2026.
It's worth noting that India and Pakistan no longer participate in cricket bilaterals due to cross-border tensions. As a result, they only compete against one another at international or continental events. The two sides last played a bilateral series in 2012-13, when Pakistan toured India for two T20Is and three ODIs.
Since then, the two sides have been frequently placed in the same groups for International Cricket Council (ICC) and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) competitions to ensure that the tournaments' financial success continues until the end.
Gavaskar believes that the ICC may be forced to divide the two teams into separate groups in the future because Pakistan is boycotting the T20 World Cup match against India.
"This could well be the time that the ICC decides to go ahead with the draw as it is, without looking to specifically club India and Pakistan in the same group.
I know the reason why it happened. In 2007, India and Pakistan were supposed to face each other at some point, but it didn't happen even once, as they were in different groups and were knocked out early. Since then, the endeavor has been to have India and Pakistan in the same group,” Gavaskar told India Today.
Gavaskar also made a dig at Pakistan, claiming that India no longer 'sweats over' the prospect of facing their arch-rivals, given their recent dominance.
"As far as India are concerned, they've got two points. They don't have to sweat about anything-not that they would sweat about Pakistan, given the way they have been beating them easily in recent times. We will just have to wait for a few days to actually know why the Pakistan government has taken the call that they have," he noted.
India has won seven games, while Pakistan has won one match in their 8 meetings in the T20 World Cup tournament.