If you’d told some a few years ago that IND vs PAK isn’t the biggest cricket rivalry anymore, they’d call you a madman. The rivalry has mostly been one-sided. Until the early 2000s, Pakistan dominated India, and in the last 25 years, the tide has turned completely in India’s favour. Right now, it seems to be at an all-time low, and Pakistan’s mantle as India’s biggest nemesis on the cricket field has been taken over by Australia.
Australia overtakes Pakistan as India’s new arch-rivals
India has faced both teams in the T20 World Cup, and it was Australia that dominated the social media game when compared to Pakistan. According to Sprinklr Insights, the India vs Australia match gained much more buzz on social media platforms like X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, and Quora.
While the IND vs PAK match seemed to have gathered around 25-30 million mentions online, the India vs Australia game saw at least four times more engagement (125-130 million) from fans. But, when it came to conversations online, the numbers for India vs Pakistan tie were through the roof while India vs Australia encounter still held their own.
We have also seen fans from the two neighboring nations engage in playful and sometimes toxic banter. However, it turned out the most negative mentions came during the India vs Australia match, and the India vs Pakistan encounter wasn’t even in the top five.
Shockingly, Pakistan was the fifth most mentioned side online during the T20 World Cup. Australia too wasn’t that great on this front as they came behind Oman, the USA and Canada. Meanwhile, India remained atop with South Africa being their closest competitor.
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Pakistan: Big names, not competition
The list of most popular players in the T20 World Cup is dominated by Indians. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, and Arshdeep Singh are the six most famous stars, while Babar Azam is the lone Pakistani player to feature.
No Australian player features on the list, but it was indeed their performance that spoke. Although they crashed out of the Super 8s, the Men in Green even failed to make it past the group stage. Pakistan may have one of the most popular players in cricket at the moment, but these statistics show that performance reigns supreme.
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