IND vs PAK Asia Cup 2025 Final: Former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar recently went on to a game show on PTV Sports, where he said, “Is team ka aitbaar nahi’ (You can’t trust this team to always play badly). Pakistan plays the worst cricket, they pick the worst side, but the minute the final comes, they play the best cricket and they win the final. How many times has this happened with the Pakistan team? I think that’s exactly what they’ll do.”
Is Shoaib Akhtar right? Well, the stats say so
It might be triggering for Indians, but if we look at the past records of the number of times India and Pakistan have faced each other in the limited overs tournaments, Pakistan has won more matches than India.
While in 1985, India beat Pakistan in the Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket by 8 wickets, in 1986 Pakistan took revenge by defeating India with 1 wicket in the Austral-Asia Cup in Sharjah. Pakistan then went on to win 2 other matches in 1994 and 2017 against India in the Austral-Asia Cup and Champions Trophy respectively. India won just one other T20 World Cup in 2007 beating Pakistan by 5 runs.
SO all in all, if we look at the record of limited over tournaments, Pakistan has bet India 3 times out of the 5 matches that they have played.
‘Break down the hawa around Team India’: Akhtar urges Pak to go fearless in Sunday finale
Akhtar has called on the Pakistan team to forget the “hawa (aura)” around India and play fearless cricket in the Asia Cup final. India have already beaten Pakistan twice in the tournament, but Akhtar urged his team to approach the final with the same fighting spirit that they showed against Bangladesh, where they recovered from 49/5 to win and secure their place in the final on Thursday night.
Akhtar said Pakistan should focus on taking wickets and putting pressure on India rather than just completing their 20 overs. He highlighted that Pakistan has top-class fast bowlers like Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf, who can challenge any batting lineup in the world.
“Pakistan has to move beyond this, forget about India being the number one team. We have the number one fast bowler in Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Haris Rauf is as quick as anyone in the world today. So there’s no issue if you go in with this attitude,” he said.
By attacking India with confidence, Akhtar believes Pakistan can force their rivals to work for every run and possibly disrupt their momentum.