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India captain Harmanpreet Kaur was as soon as once more within the highlight forward of the high-profile match in opposition to Pakistan as she appeared to disregard the customary handshake with Pakistan captain Fatima Sana earlier than the 2 international locations met within the ICC Ladies’s T20 World Cup 2026 at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
The Group 1 encounter was one of the crucial anticipated matches of the match, however a lot of the dialogue earlier than the primary ball revolved across the exchanges between the captains. The incident continued the pattern seen in current conferences between India and Pakistan in a number of ICC and Asian tournaments.
Harmanpreet Kaur ignores handshake with Pakistan captain, pattern continues
India and Pakistan clashed in an important Group 1 match at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Nevertheless, the pre-match focus shifted from cricket as Harmanpreet Kaur appeared to keep away from shaking fingers with Pakistan captain Fatima Sana.
The event comes inside a sample that emerged within the current contest between India and Pakistan. Even in final yr’s Ladies’s ODI World Cup, Harmanpreet Kaur and Fatima Sana didn’t shake fingers in the course of the toss ceremony.
Since final yr’s Males’s Asian Cup, the Indian workforce has largely stayed away from the standard pre-match handshake with Pakistani gamers. This strategy was first seen when Suryakumar Yadav was captaining the aspect within the Asia Cup and has been adopted throughout a number of tournaments since then.
Related scenes had been witnessed on the Ladies’s World Cup, U19 World Cup, Rising Stars Asian Cup and Males’s T20 World Cup. Consequently, the potential of the gamers shaking fingers once more forward of the newest chapter within the India-Pakistan rivalry grew to become a sizzling subject.
Whereas India has traditionally had a bonus over Pakistan at ICC occasions, matches between the 2 international locations proceed to draw plenty of consideration on and off the sphere.
What did Harmanpreet Kaur say in regards to the handshake controversy earlier than India vs Pakistan conflict?
On the eve of the match, Harmanpreet Kaur was requested if she had acquired any communication from the BCCI concerning the handshake and if the difficulty had been mentioned among the many gamers.
“Properly, I believe we’re right here for cricket and we solely discuss cricket. We do not discuss something aside from cricket and we do not take into consideration something aside from cricket. Cricket has been our dream since day one and we solely discuss cricket. We’re interested by tomorrow’s match as simply one other match that we play,” Harmanpreet instructed reporters.
The Indian captain additionally acknowledged that there’s all the time stress in a match between India and Pakistan, however confused the significance of embracing the chance.
“There will certainly be stress and what I’ve agreed earlier than is that there’ll all the time be stress if you play in opposition to Pakistan, however on the identical time it is only a matter of the way you get pleasure from that stress, as a result of in any worldwide match there can be stress. The one factor that issues is to provide 100 per cent in that match and luxuriate in each second,” she added.
What occurred within the match between India Ladies and Pakistan Ladies within the final T20 World Cup?
The final time India and Pakistan confronted one another within the Ladies’s T20 World Cup was in Dubai in 2024. India produced a disciplined all-round efficiency to register a six-wicket win whereas chasing a modest goal of 106 wickets.
Pakistan, who selected to bat first, struggled in opposition to the Indian bowlers and completed with 105/8 in 20 overs. Arundhati Reddy took 3/19 with the ball, Shreyanka Patil took two wickets, whereas Renuka Singh, Deepti Sharma and Asha Sobhana chipped in with one wicket every. Nida Dar was the highest scorer for Pakistan with 28 runs, however India didn’t enable any momentum within the innings.
In response, India misplaced Smriti Mandhana early with seven runs, however Shafali Verma supported the chase with 32 factors. Jemima Rodriguez added 23 runs whereas Harmanpreet Kaur scored an vital unbeaten knockout of 29 earlier than being compelled off injured late within the innings. Regardless of Fatima Sana choosing up some fast wickets, India achieved a cushty 108/4 in 18.5 overs with seven balls to spare to determine the competition.
Arundhati Reddy was named Participant of the Match for the match win as India maintained their dominance over Pakistan within the ICC match.
