India vs Pakistan, Asia Cup: Captains avoid handshake at toss for second time; less crowd a worry

For a second time in a row, the two captains, Suryakumar Yadav from India and Salman Agha from Pakistan, avoided a handshake at the toss during the side’s Super Four Asia Cup match in Dubai on Sunday (Sep 21). Following the handshake row after their group game the previous Sunday, which made headlines worldwide, the two captains maintained their stance of not approaching for the customary handshake at the toss, indicating that tensions between the two countries continue to remain high. Moreover, Andy Pycroft secured his position as the tournament’s match referee despite PCB’s dire effort to release him from his post over the infamous handshake saga.

Meanwhile, India won the toss and elected to bowl first against arch-rivals Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai. Salman called out the toss only for the coin to fall in favour of SKY, who decided to field first. While India brought in two match-winning bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and spinner Varun Chakaravarthy in place of two seamers, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, Pakistan made as many changes, bringing in Faheem Ashraf and Hussain Talat.

“We'll bowl first,” Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav said at the toss. “Looks a nice track and yesterday there was dew. Since the first round, we were thinking we're playing a knockout tournament, nothing changes. That was a completely different wicket (in Abu Dhabi). Quite normal, just another game. Bumrah and Varun come back for Arshdeep and Harshit.”

On the other hand, Salman, looking stiff at the toss, admitted to wanting to bowl first.

“Would've bowled first as well. It's a new game, new challenge. The mood is very normal. Pitch looks to be on the slower side. Want to start well with both bat and ball. Two changes. Hasan Nawaz and Khushdil Shah not playing,” Pakistan captain said.

Less crowd a worry

Unlike how the crowd filled the Dubai Stadium during their previous clash, there were plenty of empty seats during the toss time between India and Pakistan's Asia Cup Super-Four game at the same venue, indicating worrying signs for the organisers.

Team Sheets for today’s game –

India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson(w), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy

Pakistan (Playing XI): Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha(c), Hussain Talat, Mohammad Haris(w), Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed