Wasim Akram reveals the highlight of his cricketing career

Legendary pacer Wasim Akram has made some incredible achievements in his lifetime successful career, but he strongly believes that playing against arch rivals India was the highlight of his cricketing career.

The Pakistan-India rivalry captures the imagination of the entire cricketing world, however, they haven’t played a bilateral series since 2012-2013 due to strained relations between the two neighbouring countries.

Last year, former Indian Sports minister Vijay Goel had categorically stated there could be no bilateral cricket with Pakistan and said, "Cricket and terrorism can't go hand-in-hand."

However, the former captain, Akram, does know a thing or two about the pressure of playing against India. He played 12 Tests and 48 One Day Internationals (ODIs) against the arch rivals, of which 8 Tests and 18 ODIs were played in India.

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"Indo-Pak cricket is something different, something unbelievable. One series can get you a couple of players that can go on and play for you for 15 years," Akram, 51, told India Today.

"The amount of pressure, the celebrations start months before the games or series. I mean I was lucky that I played three series against India...two in India and one in Pakistan. So you know, I remember it like it was yesterday, it was the highlight of my career playing against India either in Pakistan or in India. It was just unbelievable, I can't explain it in words," the newspaper quoted the Sultan of Swing.

Akram said the India-Pakistan rivalry was bigger than the Ashes, the oldest cricket rivalry in cricket history. "The beauty of Indo-Pak cricket is something you can't compare with any other cricket [rivalry] in the world. I am all for the Ashes, when they talk about Ashes how many people can watch the Ashes? Five million, 10 million or let's say 20 million," he said.

"The World Cup game that India and Pakistan played in Australia at Adelaide -- a billion people watched that game," he added.

Last time they played out a full-fledged bilateral series was including Tests was way back in 2007-08. The likes of Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Azhar Ali and Mohammad Amir have never played an India-Pakistan Test match.

However, both nations continue to play each other at ICC events - last year, the two nationals squared off in the Champions Trophy. While India won the first group match, Pakistan got the revenge and went on to beat India in the final to lift the trophy for the first time.