Australia can turn as ideal venue for India-Pakistan Test matches in future

Pakistan registered a thumping victory over India in their opening fixture of the T20 World Cup 2021. The Men in Green broke India’s 12 matches winning streak against them in the World Cups with this win. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan stitched in an impressive stand of 152 runs to take the team past the total.

It is a no-brainer that the matches between these two nations are highly-anticipated contests. India and Pakistan do not play bilateral series against each other due to political tensions between the two countries. However, the Babar Azam-led side’s historic win against India in the mega event came in as a reminder of the scarcity of matches between them.

Since the year 2007, the arch-rivals haven’t locked horns with each other for the Test matches. The advent of the World Test championship makes it even more pivotal for each nation to face each other. The former Pakistan speedster Waqar Younis had also opened up on the need for the red ball games between the two countries.

“The ICC should have intervened and done something because to me having a Test championship without Pakistan and India Test matches makes no sense,” Younis said during an interview to YouTube channel Cricket Baaz.

The probability of Australia hosting the India-Pakistan games

During the 2015 ICC World Cup, India and Pakistan battled it out against each other at the Adelaide Oval. According to the South Australian government, the tickets for the game were sold out within just 12 minutes. Australia is one such nation where the people love the sport. Considering the craze and popularity of cricket Down Under, it presents itself as an ideal neutral venue.

Opening up on the same, Usman Khawaja had stated, “None of that matters – when you’re in Australia, you actually gravitate towards the subcontinent guys. When I see that, I just think ‘all together in Australia we get along, and we don’t even think twice about where we’re from. It doesn’t really matter to us.

“I want to see some red-ball games. I want to see Pakistan spinners take on Indian spinners, Pakistan batters take on Indian batters in the longer form because that’s the true test. It’d be so great for world cricket if at some stage we can work together to get that happening again, the Australian batter had earlier asserted.

Australia includes 3% of people of Indian and Pakistani descent. Hosting India-Pakistan matches will arguably benefit Cricket Australia. Highlighting these points former Australian batter Ed Cowan had previously said, “Play it in Dubai. Play it in Australia. There’s an appetite for these teams down under. It is such a spectacle. It’s emotional. It’s intense. And the cricket, realistically, these are the two superpowers and we need to see more of it.”