Former Indian cricket team wicket-keeper batter Deep Dasgupta believes that there is no rivalry left between India and Pakistan considering the massive disparity in quality. India defeated Pakistan by six wickets in the Asia Cup 2025 Super 4 clash with Abhishek Sharma and Shivam Dube emerging as the top performers. Dasgupta gave his blunt verdict on the usage of the word 'rivalry' when it comes to the India-Pakistan matches and said that although rivalries exist with teams like England, Australia and New Zealand, the level of competition between India and Pakistan is just not the same anymore.
"What rivalry? I agree completely that the India-Pakistan cricket rivalry is no longer what it was. Other rivalries like India-Australia, India-England, India-New Zealand still exist, but India-Pakistan is not at that level anymore," he said on YouTube.
Earlier, India skipper Suryakumar Yadav has urged everyone to stop calling the contests against Pakistan a meaningful "rivalry" given how his team has dominated the arch-foes, the most recent demolition act being the six-wicket triumph in a Super 4 match of the ongoing Asia Cup here.
India and Pakistan have faced each other 15 times in T20 Internationals, with the reigning world champions winning 12 of those encounters.
After the comprehensive win on Sunday night here, the proverbial question on the gulf between the two teams was thrown at Suryakumar by a senior Pakistani journalist.
"Sir, my request is that we should now stop calling India vs Pakistan matches a rivalry," Suryakumar responded with a smile.
When the scribe clarified that he was referring to "standards, and not the rivalry", the Indian skipper said it hardly makes things any different.
"Sir, rivalry and standard are all the same. Now what is a rivalry? If two teams have played 15 matches and it's 8-7, that's a rivalry. Here it's 13-1 (12-3) or something. There is no contest," he said before winding up the media conference with a grin.
(With PTI inputs)