‘Cricket shouldn’t come before our country’s stand’- Shikhar Dhawan on whether India should travel to Pakistan

Former Indian cricket player Shikhar Dhawan has backed India’s choice to skip the Champions Trophy 2025 trip to Pakistan. According to the 39-year-old, the nation’s national security posture should never be subordinated to the sport.

For more than ten years, India and Pakistan have not maintained bilateral relations due to political tensions between the two nations. India hasn’t played cricket in Pakistan since 2008. Nonetheless, the Men in Green have flown to their neighbour to compete in ICC tournaments such as the 2023 ODI World Cup and the 2016 T20 World Cup.

The ICC chose to use a hybrid approach to host the 2025 Champions Trophy after India declined to travel to Pakistan to play. This enables the team captained by Rohit Sharma to play in Dubai. The question of whether India should travel to Pakistan to play cricket was posed to Dhawan. The left-handed batter’s response was very explicit.

I don’t believe so, no. Cricket shouldn’t take precedence over our nation’s position.

Shikhar Dhawan stated on the ANI podcast that cricket should not be played in Pakistan till terrorism is stopped.

Dhawan added that it is entirely up to the Indian government to decide whether or not to travel to Pakistan. There is no control over this for players.

“First, there must be agreement inside the government. After that, the cricket boards are the last step, followed by the players. There is little that players can do about these issues. “We stand by the decision made by our nation to not play in Pakistan,” he added.

India is going into the Champions Trophy with a lot of confidence after thrashing England in an ODI series earlier this month. They are grouped with Bangladesh, New Zealand, and Pakistan in Group A. When the Men in Blue play Bangladesh at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on February 20, they will kick off their campaign.