The drama surrounding the IND vs PAK match, scheduled for Feb 15 is finally over. The PCB has finally agreed to playing the match against India, as was expected, since the time their government decided to boycott the clash, 10 days back. In fact, apart from ICC not penalising Bangladesh for not appearing in the T20 World Cup 2026, nothing much has changed, yet Pakistan ceded.
“No big change” for Team India
Nonetheless, it is a win-win for the fans who wanted to witness the match, and also for the broadcasters, since tons of money was at stake. Following this development, Team India assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate expressed his opinion. As per him, it was “no big change”.
Addressing the media ahead of the IND vs NAM match on Feb 12, ten Doeschate said, “It’s great the game is back on, no big change for us. We got to know late yesterday.” Going back to the demands put forth by the PCB, it seems they wanted IND & PAK players to shake hands again, which obviously was not in ICC’s control. Hence the demand was not met.
Bumrah to start bowling
As far as Team India is concerned, the assistant coach gave the health updates for some of the ill/injured players. Jasprit Bumrah was out of the last match due to illness, while Washington Sundar is yet to recover fully from a side strain. “Washington Sundar has joined team, will bowl today; so will Bumrah. Bumrah hasn’t bowled for 10 days, Abhishek still has upset stomach.”
Team India’s T20 World Cup 2026 squad: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.
