Follow UsOnce a fierce, evenly-contested rivalry, India-Pakistan has now become a no-contest of sorts, with the Men in Blue light years ahead of their Pakistani counterparts in every aspect.
And nothing encapsulated the current state of the rivalry better than the 2025 Asia Cup, with India winning all three matches against Pakistan — two of them convincingly — despite not even playing their best cricket.
Pakistan came close in the final in Dubai on September 28 (Sunday) but, even then, it was India who walked away with the honours as they defended their Asia Cup title successfully.
Former India captain Kapil Dev noted how the current crop of Pakistani players are nowhere as talented as the golden 80s and 90s generation, not even one percent.
“Yeah, I think they don’t have the similar talent they used to have in the ’80s, ’90s or before that. Pakistan has given us, to the world, one of the best cricketers. You can talk about Imran Khan, you can talk about Javed Miandad, Zaheer Abbas, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis. They have given us that talent. But unfortunately, we can’t see similar talent today — not even one percent of what they used to have,” Kapil Dev told India Today.
In the same interview, the former India captain lamented how India-Pakistan has now become more about politics than sports. Asia Cup 2025 was a tournament marred with controversy, and there was genuine bad blood between the Indian and Pakistani players. India declining to shake hands after the first group game set things off, but there was also sledging, mocking and gestures and celebrations that crossed the line.
“I just want to say — your responsibility, and responsibility for the entire media also we should look into the sports side rather than looking into the politics side. Yes, media has the responsibility to bring everything on the table, but as a sportsman, I would like to see that we should stick to sports. It will be much better,” the former India captain said.