ANOTHER CLASH BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN ?

By Anshika Khera

The Indian team is working hard to get ready for the Asia Cup Super 4s, which begins on Saturday, September 20. Before that, Suryakumar Yadav and his team will play their last Group A match against Oman on Friday. The players practiced at the ICC Cricket Academy, close to where the Pakistan team was doing light football drills. Even though there were rumours that India might skip training, the players showed up and continued their intense practice, which had already gone on for three hours.

The training sessions were not similar at all. The Indian players had a proper warm up with Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma doing fitness drills under trainer Adrian Le Roux while Pakistan was just limited to kicking a football around.

Some might say the team looked relaxed despite their big loss to India and problems off the field. But the jokes and chatter with the fitness coach also showed signs of hidden tension, while the Indian media watched the practice closely. Not for once did any Pakistan player venture towards the Indian arena to have a look of their practice.

Pakistan’s response to the controversy of Indian players not shaking hands with them came as they didn’t send their captain Salman Ali Agha for the post-match rituals. In the aftermath of the incident, the PCB had asked for the removal of match referee, Andy Pycroft, from the tournament citing violation of ICC rules and regulations, only to be rejected by the game’s global governing body.