The Greatest Rivalry India vs Pakistan review: It is Shoaib Akhtar Vs Sehwag in Netflix docuseries with one glaring omission

3/5

The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan plot

Netflix's latest documentary series chronicles the long-standing rivalry between the Indian and Pakistani teams on the cricketing field, primarily through two epic tours - the Pakistan tour of India in 1999 and the India tour of Pakistan in 2004.

The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan review

The Ashes series between Australia and England, considered the oldest cricketing rivalry, is also a fierce battle of wits and sportsmanship. But it does not match up to India and Pakistan’s cricketing rivalry, which has far-reaching consequences beyond the stadium. The looming political tension and the burden of expectations ensure that every match between India and Pakistan is electrically charged.

An India-Pakistan match is an emotion that embodies the dreams of millions of people on both sides of the border, with Shikhar Dhawan summing up in the Netflix documentary that it is ‘nothing less than a war’.

Through its nearly 1.5-hour docuseries, Netflix seeks to relive those moments of rivalry on the pitch, the events outside the stadium that finally led to the historic series in 2004 when India finally toured Pakistan after a hiatus of 15 years.

And these events are recounted by the cricketing greats of Shoaib Akhtar, Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly, and Inzamam-ul-Haq, as they share their lived experience of walking into a stadium that trembled with the noise, excitement and tension among the millions of die-hard cricket fans. The story of India-Pakistan cricketing rivalry is also deeply entrenched in the shared history of the two neighbouring nations that was scarred by the Partition.

The series, directed by Chandradev Bhagat and Stewart Sugg, quickly skims through these pages of history before settling down on the epic matches. Not just the cricket icons, journalists, former government officials and analysts too pitch in to document the events that led up to the 1999 Pakistan tour of India. Juxtaposed with the action on the cricket field are scenes from the turn of the century as we get to see TV footage of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf, among others.

Shoaib Akhtar and Virender Sehwag head the proceedings as they each share their stories, akin to the times when they led the charge for their teams on the field.

We also see glimpses of the Kargil war, which once again put a halt to the cricketing journey between the two teams. The docuseries also shows us how a cricketing rivalry paved the way to cricketing diplomacy, opening a passage for the people of both countries to set aside their differences and cheer for the sport.

The three-episode documentary, each with a duration of around 30 minutes, is crisp and stays close to the narration. Cricket fans are well aware of the match results, but reliving those epic moments with background details through the documentary is surely much appreciated.

The second episode of ‘The Battleground’ is all about Rawalpindi Express vs Sultan of Multan as Akhtar and Sehwag lock horns in the first Test in 2004.

However, one major miss is that the makers completely failed to mention the 194* knock of Sachin Tendulkar in the first Multan Test. Though they celebrate Sehwag’s historic triple century, and rightly so, the series completely sidesteps Tendulkar’s impeccable batting stint which was disappointingly cut short after the Indian innings was declared with him requiring just 6 runs to score the double ton. The living legend of cricket is also missing in front of the camera in the series and that is also hard to look over, especially for his fans. Rahul Dravid, who was the captain then, also did not join the series, which featured Sunil Gavaskar, Waqar Younis, Javed Miandad, John Wright and Ravichandran Ashwin.

But for this grouse, the well-made docuseries, with its crips narration and archival footage of sports and other key events, proves to be an engaging watch. The docuseries, releasing on Netflix on February 7, 2025, is perfectly timed with the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy around the corner and the India-Pakistan match scheduled to be held on February 23, 2025, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan Verdict

The Netflix docuseries walks us through two of the most epic tours between India and Pakistan, expertly weaving in the political tensions and security concerns at the time. With the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy set to start, the docuseries would serve as a good refresher for fans and a quick introduction for Gen Z about what makes an Indian-Pakistan match so keenly watched even by non-cricket fans.

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