"100% it will happen": Ashwin dismisses Pakistan's threat to boycott India T20 World Cup clash

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 is just three sleeps away, and the status around the marquee India vs Pakistan Group A game on Feb 15 in Colombo continues to stay in limbo. However, despite the Pakistan government’s latest directives on Men in Green not taking the field against India on the very day, former Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin feels everything will take the backseat when the time comes, and that the India vs Pakistan T20 World Cup will 100 per cent take place.

Ashwin’s comments have come on the backdrop of ICC swiftly taking note of the Pakistan government’s remarks on the matter, which, later, also subtly warned the PCB of long-term implications of boycotting the India game. Ashwin said he is sure that this decision will be overturned, and all parties concerned will agree to a showdown between the two Asian giants on Feb 15.

Explaining reasons behind this, Ashwin said that plenty of business decisions are involved in this one game; he added that the Pakistan Cricket Board is also at risk of failing to shoulder the financial burden of forfeiting the India game, with the ICC likely to ask them to pay from its pockets.

“100 per cent, the match between India and Pakistan will happen. I feel that it will happen. The next 3-4 days will see these decisions being overturned. And that’s my hunch, and I hope I want to see the India-Pakistan encounter. Because there are a lot of business decisions in this.

“Pakistan has another problem. There may also be financial loss as you will have to reimburse the broadcasters for whatever loss they have incurred,” he said.

Ashwin said, considering all factors, the PCB would have to compromise and agree to face India in the marquee game in Group A.

“So, I think they will have to come to a compromise. The financial thing involved in this will mean that other ICC member countries, too, will face a loss. In the ICC meeting, all these members will say because of Pakistan, we are getting these losses. PSL is also going to happen. Even in PSL, players can say that we will not come,” said Ashwin on his YouTube channel, Ash ki Baat.

Same yet different!

Ashwin explained the difference between previous instances, when several teams decided against travelling to hosting nations (including Australia and West Indies in Sri Lanka in 1996 and England and New Zealand in Zimbabwe in 2003), because of security and travel issues, and this time, where, despite both boards agreeing on hybrid models, Pakistan decided against facing India at a neutral venue.

“We will talk of the 1996 World Cup and also of the 2003 World Cup. Teams refused to travel to Sri Lanka. They fortified the matches. In the 2003 World Cup also, teams forfeited matches due to security and travel. But those are venue-based problems. Right now. Pakistan and India will be playing in a neutral venue. There is no problem with the venue also. So, after all of this. To say I will not play a particular opponent is just not acceptable in many ways. I hope better sense prevails and these matches do take place,” Ashwin added.