Former India opener Aakash Chopra has directed attention towards the absence of any India-Pakistan matches in the World Test Championship tournaments despite them being an ICC event.
India has played the finals of the first two WTC tournaments in 2021 and 2023 but has fallen short of winning the mace, first losing to New Zealand in Southampton and then most recently to Australia at the Oval.
Following the loss, Rohit also voiced his reservations on the final format in the WTC; he believes the titular clash should be a three-Test affair. While some fans and former cricketers resonated with Rohit's suggestion, Cummins was unequivocally against it.
However, Aakash Chopra is rather concerned about the fact that the two WTC cycles thus far have not seen any clashes between India and Pakistan, and even in the fixtures announced by ICC for the next WTC cycle in 2023-25, there are no matches between these two Asian giants.
“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,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
India and Pakistan last played a Test match in 2007 and have not played any bilateral series since 2012-13 and only play in ICC and ACC events.
“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,” he further said.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
