On Sunday, September 21, India take on Pakistan in the second game in the Super-Four stage of the tournament. The encounter will be held at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai. Earlier in the tournament, India’s and Pakistan met at the same venue and the Men in Blue emerged victorious by seven wickets, chasing down a 128-run target in 15.5 overs.
However, apart from India’s dominance, what caught the eyes was the Indian players not shaking hands with Pakistan before or after the match. Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav notably avoided shaking hands with Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha at the toss. Later, after the match, the Indian players did not get onto the field for the customary handshakes as Suryakumar hit the winning six and walked back into the dressing room, making a conscious effort not to bump into any of the Pakistani players.
During the post-match interview, Suryakumar expressed solidarity with the victims of the Pahalgam attack. He also dedicated the victory to the Indian armed forces for their bravery during Operation Sindoor.
Now, the question arises whether India’s will shake hands with Pakistan in their second meeting in the continental competition.
It is interesting to note that during the post-match presentation of Friday’s encounter against Oman, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar asked Suryakumar directly about the forthcoming match versus Pakistan. The Indian skipper’s curt, four-word reply – “All set for Super Four” – indicated yet again that the team was avoiding publicly acknowledging their age-old rivals.
The last time India avoided shaking hands with the Pakistan team, it led to a huge controversy involving the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the match referee Andy Pycroft. The situation became so serious that Pakistan even threatened to pull out of the tournament.
Pakistan then cancelled a pre-match press conference ahead of their fixture against the UAE. They also did not arrive on schedule for the match, and it had to be pushed back by an hour as Pakistan conducted backroom talks with the ICC during the time.
Pycroft and the Pakistan team management had a meeting, which snowballed into another controversy as the video of the gathering was recorded and made public by the PCB. The ICC mentioned in an email that PCB violated a protocol in the Players and Match Officials Area (PMOA), where the meeting took place, since no electronic devices are permitted in the area.
In the press conference after the Oman game, Suryakumar was asked, “In the last match against Pakistan, apart from the bat, India did well in the remaining aspects as well. In the next match, can we expect India to do the same as in the previous game?”
It was a clear reference to the ‘No Handshake’ policy. However, Suryakumar cheekily answered on a different line, not heeding to what the reporter was trying to imply.
“Oh, you mean good performance with the ball? Yes, definitely. There’s a good combination of performance with both bat and ball. It feels so good when a stadium is jam-packed and you get support from such a big crowd. We just want to put our best foot forward for the country and do our best in the game,” Suryakumar said.
Former umpire Anil Chaudhary clarified in an Instagram reel that there are no official rules mandating post-match handshakes in the sport. The relationship between the two teams or even the two nations have not improved much since the last game. It seems highly unlikely that India will shake hands with Pakistan on Sunday.
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