Most of Pakistan’s wins against India came at Sharjah during their dominant run in the 1980s and ’90s, winning 18 of 24 games there.

In Dubai, India beat them twice in the 2018 Asia Cup, while both teams won a game each in a 2006 Abu Dhabi series.

Since Pakistan’s glory days in Sharjah, the tide has shifted – apart from the occasional T20I win, India has largely dominated in the new millennium.

Veteran cricket writer Ayaz Memon feels there is no reason to look at India-Pakistan clashes in the UAE through the prism of the past.

”There is no doubt that Pakistan enjoyed tremendous crowd support in the Sharjah days, with the local Pathan population making up the numbers. However, the team then boasted of the likes of Imran Khan, Javed Miandad, Saeed Anwar, Aamer Sohail and the two Ws [Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis],” Memon says.

“Compare that to the state of the current team, which comes up with some exceptional results from time to time but lacks any form of consistency.”