The 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle is starting to hit its stride, but just like the previous three competitions, the absence of Pakistan-India matches is set to take some sheen off the event.
Now, former India head coach Ravi Shastri has weighed in on the long-standing freeze in bilateral Test cricket between India and Pakistan, declaring that any hopes of restoration lie far beyond the reach of cricket boards or governing bodies and rest solely in the hands of the respective governments.
In a candid conversation on the sidelines of the first England-India Test match, Shastri was asked whether there was any realistic path toward the revival of the iconic Test rivalry, given the potential earnings involved for the ICC, BCCI, and PCB. His response was unequivocal.
“It will all depend on the political relations. It has nothing to do with BCCI, nothing to do with ICC. It is no one else’s business. It will depend on the state of politics between the two countries. That will determine whether India will play Pakistan, nothing else,” Ravi Shastri said in response to Michael Atherton’s inquiry.
While the relations between the two countries are not ideal, they continue to face each other in ICC and ACC events by making special arrangements, like in the 2025 Champions Trophy or the upcoming Women’s ODI World Cup. However, they have not faced each other once in the World Test Championship despite it also being an ICC event.
India and Pakistan last played a bilateral Test series in 2007–08, when Pakistan toured India. Since then, diplomatic tensions between the two nations have led to the suspension of all long-form bilateral cricket. There have been periodic whispers about reviving the rivalry, particularly at neutral venues like the UAE or even England, but Shastri believes symbolic moves won’t solve the core issue.
Pakistan and India have always delivered fireworks even in Test cricket, and many see it as cricket’s loss that players like Virat Kohli have retired from the game without facing Pakistan in Tests even once.
While there may be a future where the two countries face off in the longest format of the game, influential voices like Shastri know that it is out of everyone’s hands right now.
Until then, the wait continues—as does the longing for the restoration of one of the sport’s most emotionally charged rivalries.