[WATCH] 'Billions watch...'- Ravi Shastri picks top rivalry between Ashes and India vs Pakistan

During a recent podcast on Stick to Cricket, the former Indian head coach, Ravi Shastri, was challenged to pick the biggest rival between the India-Pakistan clashes and the Ashes of England and Australia. It has always been a topic in modern games where talks remain on which remains the biggest head-to-head in the game.

Ashes comes with so much history, as do the India-Pakistan clashes. The neighbours and families get connected along with the government on most occasions. And Ravi Shastri reckoned that in the past, when he was part of the Indian team, the India vs Pakistan clashes would top the Ashes rivalry comfortably.

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‘I would say the years I have played India vs Pakistan. Just the interest it generates from the outside is massive. It has billions of viewers. They keep that in the same group of ICC events to get a couple of games. Although having said that, in the last 10 years, I think India vs Australia has taken. In cricketing terms, India, Australia, and England have had some fantastic series.’ The former Indian head coach addressed.

Watch: Ravi Shastri picks top rivalry between Ashes and India vs Pakistan

The former all-rounder, who was in a discussion with some of the other notable players like Michael Vaughan, Sir Alastair Cook, David Llyod and Phil Tufnell, pained the picture of how the ICC tends to keep both the Asian side in the same group to engage the peoples.

‘Like this year, you got more crowds in at the MCG for Boxing Day. The highest number of people and the largest number of people came in since Bradman’s team in 1936. So now, I think the Ashes will get a lot of people. But to upstage that, it has to be the greatest series and probably the best crowd ever.’ Shastri countered.

England is due to play the Ashes 2025/26 in the winter down under. The buzz has already been set with the Ben Stokes-led side going hard at the Australian side, which is under a little bit of pressure, looking at their top order. But it will still need to be the greatest series to overtake the records set by the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25.