Legendary former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar recently came forward and talked about the future of India-Pakistan matches in bilateral series. It is interesting to note that both India and Pakistan have not faced off in a bilateral series since 2012-13.
Pakistan toured India for a white ball series back then, and ever since then, the Men in Green are yet to make an appearance in the country for a series. Due to ever-rising political tensions between both India and Pakistan, the bilateral series between them have come to a halt.
Sunil Gavaskar recently took centre stage and opined that for the bilateral series to restart between India and Pakistan, there needs to be complete peace at the borders. "By frankly having peace at the borders... (How can India and Pakistan play a bilateral series?) It’s very simple. If there's peace at the borders, then I think both governments will certainly say, 'Look, okay, we've had no incidents, nothing at all. So let's at least start talking,” Gavaskar said on Sports Central.
“I'm pretty certain there will be some back-channel connections going on. But you want to see what's happening both on the ground and off the ground because of the fact that there are incursions we hear about. That’s the reason why the Indian government is saying, 'Look, maybe until all that stops, we should not even look at having or talking about anything,” he added.
It is worth noting that the Indian team have not played in Pakistan since 2008 due to the Mumbai terror attacks. Recently, the BCCI refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy 2025 as well. While the tournament was slated to be held in Pakistan originally, it was shifted to a hybrid model with India playing their matches of the tournament in Dubai.