Asian Cricket Council (ACC) chief Jay Shah has confirmed that Team India won’t be traveling to Pakistan for the 2023 Asia Cup on the sidelines of the 91st BCCI Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mumbai on Tuesday. The 2023 Asia Cup is slated to be hosted by Pakistan and sources had earlier said that the BCCI was open to sending India to participate in the tournament. Shah, who is also the BCCI secretary, said that the 2023 Asia Cup may be played in a neutral venue and not Pakistan.
India had last toured Pakistan for a bilateral series in 2005-06 under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid. India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral cricket series since 2012-13 when Pakistan toured India for three-match ODI and T20I series. Since then, both have just met at world events or Asia Cup.
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Matches between the two arch-rivals are always highly anticipated and stadiums go full house. The tickets for the two teams’ T20 World Cup 2022 on October 23 were sold out within hours of its release. Of late, Pakistan has given some memorable performances against India and they even broke the World Cup jinx against India by defeating them in the T20 World Cup last year in the UAE.
Taking note of that performance, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) president Ramiz Raja recently said that Team India has now started to give Pakistan respect, and hence the Babar Azam-led side needs to be appreciated for giving India a tough fight.
During a recent conversation with Dawn News, Ramiz Raja said, “These games are more about mentality, rather than skill and talent. Even small teams can beat big teams if they have the temperament of not give up. Pakistan has always been the underdog heading into (World Cup) games against India. But, they have started to give us respect, of late. Earlier, they thought that Pakistan can’t beat them.”
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He further added, “So we should give credit to this current Pakistan team. We defeated a billion-dollar cricket industry. I have played World Cups but we never won against India. This team should be appreciated. Despite limited resources, we are giving them a tough fight.”
