PAPakistan

Country history

Pakistan gained Test status within five years of independence, playing its first Test in October 1952 against India in Delhi, losing that opener but winning the next match to announce itself as a serious cricketing nation. Known as the "Men in Green" for its kit and sometimes the "Shaheens" after the eagle emblem on early team logos, Pakistan built a reputation for producing mercurial fast bowlers and unpredictable, occasionally chaotic brilliance, from Fazal Mahmood in the 1950s through Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis in later decades.

The defining triumph came in 1992, when Imran Khan's team, written off after a poor group stage, rallied under his rallying cry to play like "Cornered Tigers" and won the World Cup in Australia, beating England in the final at the MCG -- a title still spoken of as the birth of modern Pakistani cricket confidence. Pakistan lost the inaugural World Twenty20 final in 2007 to India, but won the T20 World Cup outright in 2009 at Lord's under Younis Khan, and later claimed the 2017 Champions Trophy as underdogs, defeating arch-rivals India in the final at The Oval.

Pakistan's cricketing story has been shaped as much by turbulence as talent: a 2009 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore forced the side into years of playing "home" matches in the UAE, only gradually returning to hosting international cricket at home from the late 2010s. The rivalry with India, rarely played bilaterally since the early 2010s due to political tensions, remains cricket's most emotionally charged occasion whenever the teams meet at ICC events.

Sources

• Wikipedia
• ESPNcricinfo

ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Winners won (1)

• 1992

Runner-up finishes (1)

• 1999

See the full icc men's cricket world cup winners list for the winner each of these years.