India and Pakistan have not played Test cricket since 2007/08, and bilateral cricket in any format since 2012/13 as political tension between the nations increased. In the interim period, the women and the men have met in multi-nation tournaments hosted by the ACC and the ICC, albeit in limited-overs cricket.

India have qualified for the final of both editions of the World Test Championship, but Pakistan have not, ruling out a clash between the arch rivals in the format.

In an interview with Wisden Cricket Monthly, Pakistan Test captain Shan Masood expressed his desire to lead Pakistan in a Test match against India. “My greatest memory has been playing India in the 2022 T20 World Cup at the MCG – it was around 94,000 people and that was surreal,” he reminisced.

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“If we have a Test match in Pakistan or in India, even the Ahmedabad ground, or we play in Pakistan or in a neutral venue, I reckon an India v Pakistan match could sell out any venue in the world. It’d be great.

“You want to play the best teams in the world and India is certainly one of the best, especially when it comes to Test cricket. We just saw a very exciting India versus England series. I would love for that (India v Pakistan) to happen. It’d be a great honour to lead Pakistan against India.”

However, Shan is aware of how unrealistic his ambitions are: “At the moment it doesn’t look likely, but you never know. There’s always a case for a World Test Championship final. That would be great.

“But we have some work to do. We need to win probably all of our home series and get some points away but we’re still in a decent position. We have to take it series by series. There’s eight months to go before our next Test match so there’s still some thinking to do in terms of how we want to approach that.”