DUBAI: A frosty second set the tone for the Asia Cup 2025 conflict as Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha and India’s Suryakumar Yadav prevented a handshake in the course of the toss on the Dubai Worldwide Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
After profitable the toss, Salman Ali Agha elected to bat first and walked straight previous India’s staff, whereas Suryakumar Yadav mirrored the gesture.
Each leaders appeared to disregard one another in the course of the ceremonial proceedings.
Matches between the neighbours at all times appeal to world consideration, however this time, the event carries a unique sentiment.
The fallout from the Could battle — together with disputes over downed plane, ceasefire breaches and political rhetoric — continues to overshadow sporting ties, amplifying the importance of this encounter.
Social media was abuzz with Indians calling for a boycott of Sunday’s Asia Cup sport with Pakistan, as individuals from the neighbouring nation known as on their authorities to cancel the match with the Inexperienced Shirts.
Echoing their sentiments, Indian opposition events additionally known as it an insult to the victims of the Pahalgam terror assault and to the Indian troopers as New Delhi blames Islamabad for the unlucky incident — allegations that Islamabad has denied.
Regardless of Pakistan’s current efficiency, the general T20I head-to-head document favours India, who’ve received 10 of the 13 encounters. Within the Asia Cup T20 format, India leads 2-1.
Their most up-to-date assembly got here in the course of the 2024 T20 World Cup in New York, the place Rohit Sharma’s India narrowly defeated Babar Azam’s Pakistan in a low-scoring thriller.
Taking part in XIs
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Mohammad Haris (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Salman Ali Agha (c), Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed.
India: Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah.
