NEW DELHI: After India delivered a crushing six-wicket defeat to Pakistan in their Asia Cup 2025 clash on Sunday, captain Suryakumar Yadav made a striking declaration, urging everyone to stop referring to contests between the two nations as a meaningful “rivalry.” This marked India’s second comfortable win over Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup, including an earlier group stage victory.
For Suryakumar, the recent results are self-explanatory. When a seasoned Pakistani journalist queried whether the standard gap between the two teams had widened significantly, the Indian captain responded with a wry smile: “Sir, my request is that we should now stop calling India vs Pakistan matches a rivalry.”
When the journalist clarified he was referring to “standards, not rivalry,” Suryakumar humorously doubled down: “Sir, rivalry and standard are all the same. Now what is a rivalry? If two teams have played 15 matches and it’s 8-7, that’s a rivalry. Here it’s 13-1 (actually 12-3) or something. There is no contest,” he quipped before departing the press conference room with a grin.
Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh quickly echoed this sentiment on social media, adding his own comedic touch to Suryakumar’s remarks. He posted a photo showing Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma in a lively on-field discussion with Pakistan pacer Haris Rauf, captioning it with: “The One Sided Rivalry (with laughing emojis). Chak de India.” He further emphasized his point by deliberately deleting the word ‘Greatest’ from the image, leaving only ‘Rivalry.’
The statistics strongly support their perspective. India and Pakistan have faced each other 15 times in T20 internationals, with the reigning world champions securing victory in 12 of those encounters. Notably, since the ICC T20 World Cup 2022, India has achieved seven consecutive wins against Pakistan across various white-ball formats.
Over the years, this imbalance has only grown more pronounced. Pakistan’s team has seen a decline following the retirement of several key players, leaving them struggling to match a well-established Indian side. Their previous meeting in this very Asia Cup serves as another prime example, where India comfortably chased down a target of 128 runs to clinch a seven-wicket victory in the group stage.
The list of recent clashes further underscores the overwhelmingly one-sided nature of these encounters:
- Asia Cup 2025: India won by 6 wickets
- Asia Cup 2025: India won by 7 wickets
- Champions Trophy 2025: India won by 6 wickets
- T20 World Cup 2024: India won by 6 runs
- ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: India won by 7 wickets
- Asia Cup 2023: India won by 228 runs
- T20 World Cup 2022: India won by 4 wickets