The last home series India played against Pakistan in 2013 was won by Pakistan. It was the great Indian team with likes of Dhoni and Kohli. One off games cannot be taken as representations of how teams will do when there is a full fledged bilateral series.
If Pakistan is to play India at home I am sure the pitches won't be rank tuners and there will be something for everyone in the pitch. Don't be so fast in writing a team off.
Currently Pakistan gets a lot of hate for not doing great in newzealnd but have you checked what happened to India when they played their in 2020? And this supposed to be the greatest Indian team of all time.
That 2012-13 series was a not a representation of the respective strengths of the two sides and the direction that they were heading in. It was an anomaly with Pakistan catching India at the right time.
That Indian team was in transition. Tendulkar had just retired, they were still opening with Sehwag and Gambhir who were past their best, they had Yuvraj in the middle-order who was no longer the same player he was before cancer.
Rohit Sharma was still batting in the middle-order and going nowhere with his career.
Dhawan was not in the team.
In the bowling attack, they had the likes of Dinda with Shami and Bhuvneshwar making their debuts in that series.
The Indian team in that series was over-reliant on Dhoni and Kohli who was not in his prime years yet.
After that series, India dropped Sehwag and Gambhir and opened with Rohit and Dhawan and they took off from there and became a top class side again.
On the other hand, Pakistan rode on the purple patches of players like Nasir Jamshed and Junaid Khan who both lost their way soon after that series.
As a result, that series was not representative of what bilateral cricket would have been like between the two teams over the last decade because the complexion of the sides changed.
However, in the 2017-19 period, we did see what a true representation of what bilateral cricket between the two countries would have been like in the last decade.
The same set of Pakistani and Indian players faced off in 5 ODIs between 2017 and 2019 and India won 4-1.
Two of those matches were without Kohli and they still won with ease.
Pakistan’s only win came in the CT final which was a freakish result such as India getting out for 36 and was not a representation of the quality of the two sides.
But India’s 4-1 dominance is a representation of what an ODI series between the two teams would be like today.
India would win 4-1 or 5-0.
It is Pakistan cricket’s great fortune that they have not played any bilateral series with India over the last 6-7 years. It would have been as humiliating as the 2018 Asia Cup and as competitive as India vs Sri Lanka.
The level of interest in Pakistan cricket would have hit rock-bottom after getting thrashed by India home and away in all formats every 2 years.
As far as Test cricket is concerned, India would demolish Pakistan in any conditions. If they prepare a tank-turner, sure Yasir will trouble their batsmen but Ashwin and Jadeja will reduce our batsmen to rubble.
Our best batsman Babar himself would be a walking wicket against them and none of the other would hold their fort either. We no longer have the likes of Younis Khan.
Our capability to play high class spin on turners is very poor these days.
Turner, flat wicket, green wicket, bouncy wicket - India will blow Pakistan away because it is miles ahead in all facets.
Yes India lost 2-0 in New Zealand, but they always so win in Australia not once but twice even if they don’t have their main players available.
Also, they have spent 4 years at the top of the rankings which is the longest reign at the top for an Asian side ever, and the longest reign for a side in the 2010 decade.
They have also lost only two Test matches at home in the last 6 years.
If Pakistan can come close to such achievements, I will not criticize them for losing 2-0 in New Zealand. Unfortunately, we do not have the talent, skill and mentality to taste such achievements.
