Shan Masood wants Pakistan to play India in Test cricket

Pakistan and India have not played a Test match since 2008 and any bilateral cricket since 2013 due to ongoing political tensions between the two countries however, Pakistan’s red-ball skipper Shan Masood expressed his desire to play arch-rivals India in the longer format.

While the nations have played one another in multi-nation tournaments like the Asia Cup and World Cup, they are still yet to play a red-ball match is 16 years and Shan is eager to lead Pakistan in a Test match against India.

“My greatest memory has been playing India in the 2022 T20 World Cup at the MCG – it was around 94,000 people and that was surreal,” Shan said in an interview with Wisden Cricket Monthly.

“If we have a Test match in Pakistan or in India, even the Ahmedabad ground, or we play in Pakistan or in a neutral venue, I reckon an India v Pakistan match could sell out any venue in the world. It’d be great.

“You want to play the best teams in the world and India is certainly one of the best, especially when it comes to Test cricket. We just saw a very exciting India versus England series. I would love for that (India v Pakistan) to happen. It’d be a great honour to lead Pakistan against India.”

India have qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) final twice where they first lost to New Zealand in 2021 and then to Australia in 2023 while Pakistan couldn’t make it. However, Shan stated that it is possible to face the arch-rivals in the WTC 2023-25 final.

“At the moment it doesn’t look likely, but you never know. There’s always a case for a World Test Championship final. That would be great,” Shan added.

“But we have some work to do. We need to win probably all of our home series and get some points away but we’re still in a decent position. We have to take it series by series. There’s eight months to go before our next Test match so there’s still some thinking to do in terms of how we want to approach that.”

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