By the end of 2026, the Indian cricket team will play a full series in Pakistan. This is Shoaib Akhtar’s prediction. The former Pakistan cricketer feels that things between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in the coming future and the cricket relationship between the two nations will improve.
India vs Pakistan series by 2026?
The Indian government fears that Team India would be at risk if they go to Pakistan. Even now, the reason behind not sending the national side for the Champions Trophy 2025 is the safety of players. The relationship between the two nations hasn’t improved for a long time now, and it doesn’t look like things will get better in the near future. But Akhtar remains optimistic.
He thinks the BCCI and new International Cricket Council (ICC) Chairman Jay Shah would work together, and when the relationship between the governments of the two nations improves, Team India will travel and play in Pakistan. The speedster’s estimation is that it’ll happen in the next two years.
“BCCI and Jay Shah want it (to send Indian team to Pakistan). But the current situation is not ideal. Backdoor diplomacy continues but our relationship isn’t there yet. Once it’s there, they will come. I will predict that within a year or two, India will play a full series in Pakistan,” Akhtar said on PTV Sports.
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No Champions Trophy match in Pakistan; forget series
The chances of an India vs Pakistan series seem as optimistic as Akhtar bowling at 160 kilometers once again. The two nations last played a series in 2012-13 when Pakistan travelled to India for a white-ball tour. Since then, they haven’t played any bilateral cricket. However, it has been 16 years since India visited them. Post the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, the Indian government has made its stance clear. They don’t think it’s safe to travel to Pakistan.
One also mustn’t forget that just one year after (2009), Sri Lankan players were openly fired at by gunmen. Pakistan was ostracised by the whole cricket community for nearly a decade post the incident, but since then, all major teams, including Sri Lanka, have travelled there. But the BCCI isn’t willing to change their stance, and the chances of Team India going there for a single match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 seems impossible.
