U19 World Cup: India once more refuse handshake with Pakistan at toss

Sameer Minhas goes large, India vs Pakistan, last, Dubai, Beneath-19 Asia Cup, December 21, 2025. — ACC

Pakistan and India’s Beneath-19 sides are competing in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on Sunday in a high-stakes Tremendous Six conflict, with the customary handshake not going down on the toss.

The fixture comes with additional edge after Pakistan U19 hammered India by 191 runs of their most up-to-date assembly on the U19 Asia Cup last in December, and the identical stress round pre-match formalities has already been seen on the age-group degree, with captains skipping the customary greeting on the toss in that match.

The freeze over match-day courtesies has escalated since a lethal army conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours in Could 2025, with friction repeatedly surfacing round toss ceremonies and post-match formalities.

It first drew main consideration on the males’s degree through the ACC Males’s T20 Asia Cup in September, when India’s gamers refused to shake fingers with Pakistan for his or her first group stage match on the toss in an episode that drew widespread criticism. 

The problem intensified additional through the match when India captain Suryakumar Yadav once more refused the customary toss handshake with Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha in two extra fixtures. 

The incident additionally triggered controversy over how the toss ceremony was dealt with, with the omission reportedly linked to match referee Andy Pycroft, and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) contemplating pulling out earlier than Pycroft admitted mishandling points of the episode and expressed remorse, in accordance with the PCB.

The stress later prolonged to different occasions, together with the ladies’s sport, the place the perimeters declined greetings on the toss through the current T20 World Cup, and to the lads’s Rising Stars Asia Cup tie in Doha.

The stance has additionally been bolstered by officers. Board of Management for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Devajit Saikia stated the strategy relating to Pakistan would stay unchanged, and informed the BBC there was no assurance Indian gamers would shake fingers with Pakistani counterparts throughout their Ladies’s World Cup assembly in Colombo on October 5.

In that match, Pakistan captain Fatima Sana and India captain Harmanpreet Kaur prevented shaking fingers on the toss, persevering with the identical sample.

The no-handshake flashpoint has not been restricted to India–Pakistan fixtures. At this Beneath-19 World Cup, India captain Ayush Mhatre and Bangladesh’s stand-in captain Zawad Abrar skipped the customary handshake after the toss in India’s Group B match, a second framed within the context of heightened board-level tensions.

In distinction, blind ladies from India and Pakistan brushed apart the political stress on the inaugural Blind Ladies’s T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka in November. 

Whereas there was no handshake after the toss, either side later greeted one another warmly on the finish of the match, exchanging compliments after travelling collectively to the venue on the identical bus.