India National Cricket Team vs Pakistan National Cricket Team Timeline: Complete History, Records and Head-to-Head

There is no bilateral cricket series between India and Pakistan. There has not been one since 2012-13. And yet the fixture that does not officially exist remains the most commercially valuable match in world cricket, drawing television audiences that dwarf every other contest in the game. The ICC schedules it into every global tournament knowing that broadcasters will pay whatever is asked. Advertisers build campaigns around it months in advance. Governments monitor it as a diplomatic weather vane. The two countries have not exchanged an ambassador in the conventional sense for years, but they have exchanged cricket matches, and those matches carry a weight that no other sporting contest on the planet can match.

This is the complete india national cricket team vs pakistan national cricket team timeline: every Test series from October 1952 to the final Test in December 2007, every ODI World Cup meeting from 1992 to 2023, every T20 World Cup encounter from the inaugural 2007 tournament through Colombo 2026, the full Asia Cup and Champions Trophy record, the great individual performances that defined generations, the all-time records, and the six-match India winning streak that ran from New York in June 2024 to Colombo in February 2026.

India vs Pakistan: The Rivalry in Numbers (All-Time Head-to-Head)

India and Pakistan have met across three formats of international cricket over more than seven decades. The numbers tell one story at the highest level and a different one in the shorter formats.

The Test record reflects the era of bilateral cricket: 59 Tests played across eight series between 1952 and 2007, with Pakistan holding a slight edge in wins and 38 of 59 matches ending in draws. In limited-overs cricket the modern era tells a sharply different story. India dominate T20Is at 15-6, with that advantage built almost entirely in ICC tournament cricket since bilateral T20I series between the two nations ceased along with all other bilateral cricket.

India vs Pakistan Test Cricket Timeline (1952-2007)

The first Test between India and Pakistan was played in Delhi from October 16 to 18, 1952. India won by an innings and 70 runs. It was the first international cricket series between the two nations since Partition in 1947, and the five-match series that followed across Delhi, Lucknow, Bombay, Madras and Calcutta gave the subcontinent its first taste of the fixture that would come to define South Asian sport.

Pakistan won the 1954-55 home series 2-1 in their own first tour by India. What followed were decades of competitive series interrupted by political ruptures. The 1965 and 1971 wars between the two nations halted cricket between them entirely; between 1961 and 1978 no Tests were played. When Pakistan toured India in 1979-80 it was the first bilateral series in 18 years, and it drew crowds that had not been seen at Indian cricket grounds since independence.

The 1986-87 Reliance Cup, the 1987 World Cup co-hosted by India and Pakistan, and the 1989-90 bilateral series all came during a period of cautious diplomatic warming. The 1990s brought the Sharjah triangular tournaments that became their own institution: dusty evenings, sold-out stands and the kind of cricket that inspired a generation of fans who had never seen the two nations play at home.

Four full bilateral series were played in the 2000s: India toured Pakistan in 2004 for the first time in nearly 15 years; Pakistan toured India in 2004-05 and 2007-08, and India toured Pakistan again in 2005-06. The series in Pakistan in 2004 produced some of the most vivid cricket in the modern era, with Sehwag’s 309 at Multan and Rahul Dravid’s batting masterclasses across the three Tests. The December 2007 series in Pakistan was the last bilateral cricket between the two nations. Since 2008, all India-Pakistan cricket has been played at ICC or ACC events.

India vs Pakistan in the ICC ODI World Cup: Every Meeting

India and Pakistan have met eight times in the ICC Cricket World Cup. India’s record is seven wins from eight matches.

Pakistan’s only ODI World Cup victory over India came in the 1992 tournament in Australia, when Aaqib Javed took 7/37 in what remains one of the most remarkable bowling performances in World Cup history. India were bowled out for 173 chasing 175, and Aaqib’s spell tore through a batting order that had looked composed at 100/1.

The 2003 Centurion match belongs to Sachin Tendulkar. He came to the crease with India needing to bat first against a Pakistan attack that included Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar at their peak. What followed was 75 balls, 98 runs, and an innings that Tendulkar himself has described as among the most important of his career. Shoaib bowled the second ball of the match at 150 kilometres an hour. Tendulkar drove it back over his head for six. India won by six wickets with 4.4 overs to spare.

The 2011 Mohali semi-final was watched by approximately one billion people across the subcontinent. Two prime ministers sat together in the stands. India won by 29 runs, the match swinging on a run-out of Misbah-ul-Haq in circumstances that Pakistan disputed for years afterward.

India vs Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup: Every Meeting

The T20 World Cup fixture has produced the most dramatic moments of the modern era. India lead 8-1 across all nine T20 World Cup matches between the two nations.

The 2021 Dubai match was a watershed. Pakistan beat India for the first time in any ICC World Cup in their tenth attempt at the format. Shaheen Shah Afridi removed Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in the opening over, and Pakistan chased 152 without losing a wicket. Babar Azam scored 68 not out and Mohammad Rizwan 79 not out in what remains the only occasion Pakistan have won a T20 World Cup match against India.

The 2022 Melbourne match at the MCG in front of 90,000 people swung violently. India were 31/4 chasing 160 when Kohli walked to the crease. He made 82 not out off 53 balls, including a last-ball six off Haris Rauf, to win the match with one ball remaining. It is widely considered the greatest individual T20 innings in the history of the rivalry.

The 2024 Nassau County match, played on a drop-in pitch in New York that bewildered both sides, was decided by Bumrah’s three wickets in a low-scoring thriller. India won by six runs. The 2026 Colombo match was more emphatic: Shubman Gill’s 89 powered India to 187, and Pakistan were bowled out for 126.

India vs Pakistan in the Asia Cup: Complete History

The Asia Cup began in 1984 in the UAE and has been the primary regional tournament featuring India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other Asian nations. The two nations have met in virtually every edition.

India have a commanding overall head-to-head record against Pakistan in Asia Cup cricket. Key moments from the tournament’s history include the 1984 inaugural edition, where the format gave fans their first glimpse of neutral-venue cricket between the rivals; the sharply contested 2010 and 2012 editions; and the 2023 Super Four match in Colombo where Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill made mincemeat of Pakistan’s bowling.

The 2025 Asia Cup in the UAE was the most politically fraught in the tournament’s history. India won all three of their meetings with Pakistan across the group stage, Super Four and final. In the final at Dubai, Tilak Varma made 69 not out and India won by five wickets. What followed the final became as controversial as anything on the field: the BCCI declined to accept the trophy in the post-match ceremony, citing the conditions under which it was played and the ACC’s handling of scheduling disputes. The trophy sat unclaimed on a presentation table in front of a capacity Dubai crowd, a photograph that circulated internationally and prompted emergency meetings between the ACC and its member boards.

India vs Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy

The ICC Champions Trophy, contested at irregular intervals between 1998 and 2025, has produced three India-Pakistan meetings of note.

The 2013 group stage match at Edgbaston, Birmingham, was cut short by rain. India won the Duckworth-Lewis decision, but the more significant match that tournament was the final, where India beat England, not Pakistan. The 2017 Champions Trophy at The Oval in London was the occasion Pakistan inflicted a heavy defeat on India in the final, winning by 180 runs in one of the most comprehensive defeats India had suffered in a major ICC final.

The 2025 Champions Trophy match at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on February 23, 2025 belonged to Virat Kohli. Batting first, India made 276/6. Pakistan responded and fell short when Kohli produced one of the defining innings of his late-career phase, making 100 not out to anchor the chase. India won by six wickets. It was India’s fourth consecutive ICC tournament win over Pakistan and the coda to a run of form that had become dominant rather than competitive.

The Defining Moments: Iconic Individual Performances

Six performances above all others have shaped the mythology of this rivalry.

Miandad’s last-ball six off Chetan Sharma at Sharjah in April 1986 remains the most replayed moment in the history of India-Pakistan cricket. Pakistan needed four to win off the last ball of an Austral-Asia Cup match. Chetan Sharma bowled a full toss. Javed Miandad, 37 not out from the match, hooked it over square leg. The Pakistani celebrations lasted into the following day and the image has not aged.

Sachin Tendulkar’s 98 in Centurion in 2003 was the innings that established the scale of what was possible in this fixture. He faced Shoaib Akhtar’s fastest deliveries and dispatched them with a contempt that bordered on aesthetic. He was dismissed for 98 only because he attempted one more than the match required.

Shaheen Shah Afridi’s opening over at Dubai in 2021 was the decisive tactical moment in Pakistan’s historic first ICC World Cup win over India. He removed Rohit Sharma with the second ball and KL Rahul with the fifth, leaving India’s middle order to face a chase that had already been defined before it began.

Virat Kohli at Melbourne in 2022 was the performance that, more than any other, explained why he remains the most scrutinised Indian cricketer since Tendulkar. Four wickets down for 31 chasing 160, Kohli played one of the great pressure innings: 82 not out off 53 balls, finished with a six.

Kohli’s 100 not out at Dubai in 2025 was different in character: a match-defining innings in a format and at a stage of his career where the expectation was for consolidation rather than acceleration. He built the innings with a patience that the Dubai crowd initially found surprising before recognising what it meant.

India vs Pakistan: All-Time Records

Saeed Anwar’s 194 at Chepauk in Chennai in 1997 remained the highest individual score in ODI cricket for more than a decade. It came against an India attack that included Anil Kumble on a pitch he knew better than any visiting batsman. Anwar batted for 290 minutes and hit 22 fours and 5 sixes. India still won the match, which tells you something about the scale of the rivalry’s competition even in the moments when one player achieves something singular.

Shahid Afridi’s 46-ball century in Nairobi in 1996 was the fastest hundred in ODI history when it was scored. He was 16 years old. The ball he struck for the century-completing boundary off Kumble cleared the rope with an ease that seemed to belong to a different category of human endeavor.

The 2024-2026 India Winning Run: Six Matches

India have won every match against Pakistan across all formats since the 2023 ODI World Cup. The six-match winning run from 2024 to 2026 is the longest consecutive winning streak either nation has produced against the other in global tournament cricket.

The New York match in June 2024 was played on a drop-in pitch at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, a temporary venue built specifically for the tournament in a city where cricket had minimal infrastructure. The pitch produced extravagant seam movement throughout and neither side batted with complete comfort. Bumrah’s three wickets settled it. India’s 119/6 looked vulnerable for 45 overs of the chase before Pakistan narrowed to needing 13 off the last and Bumrah returned for his final over.

The Champions Trophy match in February 2025 was different in quality and occasion. It was a Group B match but it felt like a final, and Kohli’s century made it one.

The three Asia Cup matches in the UAE across August and September 2025 were politically as charged as any in recent memory. The BCCI had lobbied for the tournament to be moved from Pakistan, where it was originally scheduled, citing security concerns. The ACC moved it to the UAE. Pakistan’s board registered its objection formally. And India won all three matches by comfortable margins, including the final.

The Trophy Dispute of 2025

The photograph of the unclaimed Asia Cup 2025 trophy on the presentation table at Dubai International Cricket Stadium became one of the most widely distributed images in the tournament’s history. The BCCI’s decision not to accept it was framed by the board as a protest against the conditions under which the tournament was conducted; the ACC and Pakistan’s board read it differently, as a further expression of the BCCI’s effective dominance over Asian cricket’s governing structures.

The dispute continued into the lead-up to the 2026 T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka. Reports that India might not participate if Pakistan were in the same group circulated for several weeks before the tournament draw. Diplomatic intervention at a level above the two boards eventually confirmed both nations’ participation. India beat Pakistan by 61 runs in Colombo in what was, by that point, a match that both governments were relieved had been played at all.

The Women’s and Age-Group Record

The women’s cricket record between India and Pakistan mirrors the men’s T20 dominance. India have won 12 of their last 12 completed matches against Pakistan in women’s internationals, across T20Is and ODIs at the Women’s World Cup, Women’s Asia Cup and bilateral series.

In age-group cricket, Pakistan claimed a significant victory in December 2025 when the Pakistan Under-19 team defeated India Under-19 by 191 runs in the ACC Under-19 Asia Cup final. The margin was the largest in the tournament’s history at that level and served as a reminder that the pipeline beneath Pakistan’s senior structure has talent that the head-to-head record at senior level does not fully represent.

What Happens Next

With the 2026 T20 World Cup complete, the next scheduled meeting between India and Pakistan in a confirmed international tournament is the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa, to be held in January and February 2027. The format returns to the 50-over game, which gives both sides time to rebuild their ODI squads after a cycle that was dominated by T20 cricket.

A bilateral series remains unlikely. The BCCI’s position that India will not travel to Pakistan for cricket, and Pakistan’s reciprocal position that it will not visit India without political normalisation, has not shifted materially since 2013. The ICC has no mechanism to compel member boards to schedule bilateral series. What that means in practice is that the india national cricket team vs pakistan national cricket team timeline will continue to be written at ICC and ACC events, with each entry separated by months rather than weeks, and carrying the weight of politics that bilateral cricket once absorbed across seventeen Test matches.

What is the India vs Pakistan all-time head-to-head record?

Across all formats combined, India and Pakistan have played 216 matches. Pakistan lead overall at 91 wins to India’s 81, with 44 no results or draws. In Tests, Pakistan lead 12-9 with 38 draws from 59 matches. In ODIs, Pakistan lead 73-57 from 136 matches. In T20Is, India lead 15-6 from 21 matches.

How many times have India and Pakistan played at the ICC ODI World Cup?

India and Pakistan have met eight times at the ICC Cricket World Cup (50-over format). India have won seven of those eight matches. Pakistan’s only victory came in 1992 at Sydney, when Aaqib Javed took 7/37 and Pakistan won by 43 runs.

How many times have India and Pakistan played at the T20 World Cup?

India and Pakistan have met nine times at the ICC T20 World Cup. India have won eight of those nine matches. Pakistan’s only T20 World Cup victory over India came in 2021 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, when Pakistan won by 10 wickets without loss.

Has Pakistan ever beaten India at the ICC World Cup?

Yes, but only once in the 50-over World Cup: the 1992 tournament in Sydney, where Pakistan won by 43 runs with Aaqib Javed taking 7/37. In the T20 World Cup, Pakistan have beaten India once: the 2021 edition in Dubai, where Pakistan won by 10 wickets. Pakistan have never beaten India in a World Cup knockout match.

When did India and Pakistan last play a Test match?

The last Test match between India and Pakistan was played in December 2007 in Lahore, the third Test of Pakistan’s home series. India won the series 1-0. No Test cricket has been played between the two nations since then, making it the longest gap between Test series of any pair of top-eight Test nations in history.

Why do India and Pakistan not play bilateral cricket?

India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral series since 2012-13 due to the deterioration in diplomatic relations between the two countries following the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The BCCI takes the position that bilateral cricket cannot resume until the Indian government signals that political conditions permit it. The PCB has sought ICC arbitration on lost revenue but has not succeeded in compelling bilateral cricket through that mechanism.

When did India and Pakistan last play a bilateral series?

The last full bilateral series was Pakistan’s tour of India in December 2012 to January 2013, a two-Test and three-ODI series. India won both Tests and the ODI series. Since then, all cricket between the two nations has been at ICC or ACC tournaments.

What is the most memorable India vs Pakistan cricket match?

The most debated candidates are Miandad’s last-ball six at Sharjah in 1986, Sachin Tendulkar’s 98 in Centurion at the 2003 World Cup, the 2011 World Cup semi-final in Mohali watched by approximately one billion people across the subcontinent, and Kohli’s 82 not out at Melbourne in 2022. The 2021 T20 World Cup match in Dubai, where Pakistan beat India for the first time in any World Cup, is the answer from the Pakistani perspective.

Who has scored the most runs in India vs Pakistan cricket?

In ODI cricket, Sachin Tendulkar leads all batsmen with 2,526 runs against Pakistan. In Test cricket, Javed Miandad scored 1,590 runs against India. In T20I cricket across all matches including ICC tournaments, Virat Kohli’s 82 not out at Melbourne is the highest individual T20I innings between the two nations at a World Cup.

What is the India vs Pakistan record at the Asia Cup?

India hold a commanding record against Pakistan in Asia Cup cricket. India won all three matches against Pakistan at the 2025 Asia Cup in the UAE, including the final by 5 wickets. India have won the last seven consecutive Asia Cup matches against Pakistan.

Why did India refuse the Asia Cup trophy in 2025?

The BCCI declined to accept the Asia Cup 2025 trophy at the post-match ceremony at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The board framed the decision as a protest against the conditions under which the tournament was conducted, including the controversy over moving the event from Pakistan to the UAE. The ACC and Pakistan Cricket Board interpreted the decision as a further assertion of BCCI dominance over Asian cricket’s governing structures. No formal explanation was issued by the BCCI.

When do India and Pakistan next play cricket?

The next confirmed meeting between India and Pakistan is at the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa, scheduled for January and February 2027. No bilateral series is scheduled or expected. The fixture returns to the 50-over format after a cycle dominated by T20 cricket.

Has Pakistan ever beaten India at the T20 World Cup?

Yes. Pakistan beat India at the 2021 T20 World Cup in Dubai by 10 wickets. Shaheen Shah Afridi removed Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in his opening over, and Pakistan chased 152 without losing a wicket. Babar Azam made 68 not out and Mohammad Rizwan made 79 not out. It was Pakistan’s first ICC World Cup victory over India in any format in ten attempts.

What is India’s biggest win over Pakistan in cricket?

In T20I cricket, India’s 61-run win over Pakistan at the 2026 T20 World Cup in Colombo is among the largest victories by runs. In ODI cricket, India’s 76-run win at the 2015 World Cup in Adelaide and the 89-run (DLS) win at the 2019 World Cup in Manchester are among the most comprehensive. In Tests, India’s win by an innings and 70 runs in the very first Test between the two nations in Delhi in October 1952 was the largest winning margin in the series.

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