The captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, Harmanpreet Kaur, did not shake hands with her Pakistani counterpart, Fatima Sana, at the toss prior to their first Group 1 match of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, in accordance with the unwritten BCCI protocol.
The national cricket teams have upheld the “No Handshake” policy at the toss and following the game ever since the terror assault in Pahalgam and the Indian Armed Forces’ Operation Sindoor last year.
Suryakumar Yadav, the now-sacked former captain of India T20, initiated it at the Asia Cup in Dubai.
Additionally, during the Women’s ODI World Cup match in Colombo, Harmanpreet and Fatima did not shake hands.
“I think we are here for cricket, and we only talk about cricket, except that we don’t talk about anything.. Cricket has been our dream from day one, and we only discuss cricket and tomorrow’s game,” Harmanpreet had said when asked by the media on the eve of India’s T20 World Cup opener.
Harmanpreet chose to bat against Pakistan after winning the toss. Bharti Fulmali is part of India’s playing XI for the game.
Teams
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Bharti Fulmali, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani, Shreyanka Patil
Pakistan: Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali(w), Ayesha Zafar, Saira Jabeen, Aliya Riaz, Natalia Pervaiz, Fatima Sana(c), Rameen Shamim, Nashra Sandhu, Tasmia Rubab, Sadia Iqbal
