The International Cricket Council announced on Tuesday that India will be hosting Pakistan’s cricket team for the first time in seven years, as part of the 50-over World Cup. The tournament is scheduled to commence on October 5, with defending champions England facing New Zealand at the iconic cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, which will also serve as the venue for the final match.

After weeks of delay due to Pakistan’s initial refusal to travel to India, a resolution was reached with Pakistan agreeing to host the Asia Cup in September using a hybrid model. As a result, the long-awaited clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan will finally take place in Ahmedabad on October 15, following India’s opening match against Australia on October 8.

According to the ICC’s statement, each of the ten participating teams will compete in a round-robin format, playing against each other once. The top four teams will then advance to the knockout stage, including the semi-finals.

India and Pakistan’s cricket encounters are always highly anticipated due to their intense rivalry, and they usually meet in international tournaments held at neutral venues, owing to longstanding political tensions. Consequently, any match between these neighboring nations becomes a global spectacle, drawing billions of viewers and fueling nationalistic fervor at home.

The 2019 World Cup clash between India and Pakistan alone attracted a staggering viewership of 273 million. Since their last bilateral series in 2012, India and Pakistan have not faced each other in their respective countries. Additionally, they have not played a Test match against each other since 2007, restricting their encounters to shorter formats of the game.

This year’s World Cup will mark Pakistan’s first cricket tour to India since the T20 World Cup held in 2016. Despite their shared cultural and linguistic ties, the history between the two nations has been marred by violence and conflict. Having fought three wars since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, India and Pakistan’s cricket matches hold significant symbolic meaning.

India’s triumph in the 2011 ODI World Cup, achieved on home soil, remains their most recent victory in the tournament. Subsequently, Australia and England clinched the title in their own countries in 2015 and 2019, respectively.