Colombo, Oct 05: On expected lines, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur did not shake hands with her Pakistan counterpart Fatima Sana during the toss for the Women’s World Cup fixture, maintaining the trend set by the men’s team in Asia Cup.
The BCCI had conveyed the players to avoid customary handshake with members of the Pakistani team.
Mel Jones conducted the toss and both the captains maintained their distance during the ceremony.
Pakistan won the toss and elected to field.
India, who enjoy an 11-0 record over Pakistan in the ODI format, made a forced change to their playing eleven with Renuka Singh replacing an injured Amanjot Kaur.
Pakistan replaced Omaima Sohali with Sadaf Shamas.
In the recently concluded men’s Asia Cup, all three games between India and Pakistan took place in a hostile environment. India players did not shake hands before or after the game with the opposition.
Champions India also refused to take the Asia Cup trophy from ACC president Mohsin Naqvi, who happens to be Pakistan Cricket Board chief and an interior minister in the government with a pronounced anti-India political position.
The hostilities between the two neighbours are at an all-time high after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 Indian tourists were gunned down by Pakistan-backed terrorists.
India had subsequently launched a military action under ‘Operation Sindoor’ to dismantle terror infrastructure across the border.
Teams:
Pakistan Women: Muneeba Ali, Sadaf Shamas, Sidra Amin, Rameen Shamim, Aliya Riaz, Sidra Nawaz (wk), Fatima Sana(c), Natalia Pervaiz, Diana Baig, Nashra Sandhu, Sadia Iqbal.
India Women: Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Renuka Singh Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani.
