India completely dictated the terms against their arch-rivals, Pakistan, in the league fixture of the Asia Cup 2025. Suryakumar Yadav was in beast mode as an unbeaten knock of 47 runs in 37 balls stunned Pakistan & he hit 5 fours and 1 six. Suryakumar Yadav, though, made headlines for his gesture of not shaking hands with Pakistan. Let’s talk about it.
Pakistan had a forgettable outing against India in all three 3 facets of the game. The side that was heavily reliant on Mohammed Haris & Fakhar Zaman was dismissed before 10 overs. India’s spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy & Axar Patel spun a web & made sure that Pakistan worked very hard to rotate the strike. As a result, they fell into the trap of a spin attack by playing rash shots.
Questionable statement & attitude by Suryakumar Yadav
When Suryakumar Yadav won the match against Pakistan, he & Shivam Dube refused to shake hands with the Pakistan team along with other members. It was quite a confusing gesture, given India played against their arch rivals Pakistan, in which they destroyed their batting & bowling attack, but weren’t ready to shake hands? It sounds quite strange.
It would sound very harsh, but if BCCI & Govt. of India had decided not to shake hands with Pakistan, then why even play the game? We all know what happened in April of the Pahalgham attack, where IPL 2025 was forced to shut down for a short period. There was a huge uproar in India & also Operation Sindoor was carried out by the Armed Forces. All this happened, and stillthe Sports Ministry of India gave the green signal to BCCI to play Pakistan in multi-lateral events, it is quite perplexing to understand how India played against Pakistan, given they didn’t want to shake hands.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir & Suryakumar Yadav dedicated the win to the Armed Forces and the victims of the Pahalgham attack. Such sort of statements and actions can be nothing but seeking attention from billion people as if there’s so much hatred for Pakistan, then why even play with them even in multi-lateral tournaments,
It somewhat states that something is very fishy & India & BCCI doesn’t have enough control over India vs Pakistan matches as if partiotism is in BCCI & Indian govt, then take a bold step and boycott it officially; but the broadcasters hold the key who may have convinced BCCI & Indian Govt to continue the matches else they would have easily suffered millions of losses.
India’s head coach has been a politician and even when Gambhir used to be a cricket expert for news channels, he took a stand to boycott but now he & Suryakumar Yadav are doing a so called silent boycott but playing with Pakistan, isn’t this a hypocrisy to win people’s hearts and also of broadcasters at the same time, it can be said a master-stroke by BCCI, India, Gambhir & Suryakumar indeed.
Pakistan in a win-win situation despite suffering embarrassment
Pakistan, which is in tatters in both red ball & white ball formats, got the much-needed financial aid from India. India vs Pakistan match generates billions of revenue, and Pakistan is the only team that is always extremely happy given their board gets the funding via sponsorships, rights & viewership.
It would sound very odd, but it looks like India helps Pakistan by playing against them. Look at the past history of conflicts between India & Pakistan since 2019, when the Pulwama attack happened & 40 military soldiers lost their lives as there was a planned attack; still, India quite happily plays against Pakistan, quite surprising?
BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla was asked during the ICC ODI WC 2019 why BCCI doesn’t boycott the matches against Pakistan. The Vice President clearly stated that they can’t go against ICC rules & regulations. If India boycotts the match against Pakistan, then it’s quite clear that Pakistan gets 2 points, or we can say the match.
What lies ahead for the India vs Pakistan contests?
There was a huge buzz on social media to boycott the match & all other stuff, but nothing happened. Even the likes of ex-cricketers Virender Sehwag did promotion of the match, and Wasim Akram & Ravi Shastri were seen analyzing the matches in the studio. It won’t be wrong to say that India vs Pakistan is a global market, the mother of all battles. No Indian government in the past was able to boycott it fully despite having multiple war situations as there are some we can say very threatening powers that run India vs Pakistan contests.
India vs Pakistan match is most likely would be in the upcoming Sunday on 21st September. Unless & until Pakistan surprises themselves and gets outplayed by the UAE and ends their journey in the first round itself. The Pakistan cricket team was very angry when Suryakumar Yadav & Co didn’t shake hands after post post-match presentation. Salman Ali Agha didn’t come at all.
In all this chaos, there is one point that we can’t ignore that even Suryakumar took a stand & all, but there’s still camaraderie between India & Pakistan players. Sport is often said to unite people irrespective of different races & creeds, but this match lacked the X factor. Only time will tell whether India will take a sturdy stand & boycott playing against Pakistan fully or the mother of all battles will continue; but unfortunately for fans, it has been one-way domination of India only since the last 3-4 years, which isn’t great for the game.
Also Read:Â Asia Cup 2025: 3 Reasons For Pakistan’s Humiliating Defeat Against India