IND vs PAK: Australia Would Be An Ideal Place - Wasim Akram And Ravi Shastri Bat For India vs Pakistan Test Match At MCG

Former Pakistan cricketers Wasim Akram and Ravi Shastri opened up about having a Test match between India and Pakistan. Both the legends feel that the current lot of players should play the longest format of the game against each other and for that Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) would be an ideal venue.

India vs Pakistan game is arguably one of the biggest games in the sporting game. The two arch-rivals have always engaged in high-intensity games and it’s fair to say that it’s one of the most watched matches across the world. When these two are up against each other, there’s hardly any cricket lover who doesn’t watch this game.

The cricket lovers however have been deprived of watching India and Pakistan play frequently against each other. Due to political tensions, the two teams don’t play each other in the bilateral series. They only play against each other in the Asia Cup and World Cups.

Coming to the Test cricket between the teams, it’s been more than 15 years since India and Pakistan played against each other. They last played the white-ball series in 2013. There have been a lot of talks about the series between the two teams, particularly the Test match but so far this looks bleak.

Wasim Akram expressed his disappointment of not playing much Test cricket against Sachin Tendulkar and he hopes that current players don’t go through that. He believes that both the teams should play Test matches and Australia would be an ideal venue for that.

Speaking to the masthead, he explained: “The only regret I had when I played cricket is I started playing Test cricket against Sachin (Tendulkar) the great man when he was 16. He made his debut against us in Pakistan.

“And then we didn’t play a Test series for 10 years. We played one-dayers in between in Sharjah or Toronto, but no Test cricket for 10 years. We played the next Test match in 1999. I hope these teams don’t go through this.

“I think the MCG as you saw in the last World Cup would be the perfect venue. Pakistan would also be an ideal venue if India wants, but if India wants a neutral venue, then I think Australia would be an ideal place.

“It’s the whole thing with the MCG. The sheer magnitude of the ground, the spectators, the security, the place itself brings a lot of confidence in you as a player if you play at the G.”

IND vs PAK: MCG would be an option – Ravi Shastri on Test match between India and Pakistan

Ravi Shastri while talking about the possibility of a Test match between India and Pakistan highlighted the atmosphere and the crowd attendance during the game between India and Pakistan in T20 World 2022 at MCG. He believes that MCG could be an option to host the game if there’s no provision.

He added: “India-Pakistan is the mother, father and grandfather of all contests. The G witnessed one of the great contests with 90,000 people there for the recent T20 World Cup when India and Pakistan played and I was commentating on it and it was huge. The fact of the matter is if India and Pakistan play again bilaterally they will play it at home.

“Let’s make that clear. The MCG would be an option if there was no solution and the boards agreed to it.

“If the MCG ever hosted the World Test Championship and India and Pakistan were in it would just happen and what an occasion that would be … let’s hope it does happen,’’ he concluded.

India and Pakistan will be up against each other in the third game of the Asia Cup 2023. The match will take place on Saturday 2nd September.