Asia Cup 2025: Salman Ali Agha, Suryakumar Yadav avoid handshake during toss

DUBAI: Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha and India skipper Suryakumar Yadav notably avoided shaking hands during the toss ahead of the highly anticipated Asia Cup 2025 clash between the arch-rivals at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

After winning the toss, Salman Ali Agha elected to bat first and walked straight past India’s skipper to Ravi Shastri for the pre-match discussion, while Suryakumar Yadav mirrored the gesture.

Both leaders appeared to ignore each other during the ceremonial proceedings.

When this news was filed, the green shirts faced early setbacks in the first two overs with the dismissals of Saim Ayub for duck and Mohammad Haris for three.

Both teams enter the match in strong form. India recently bowled out hosts UAE for just 57 runs and chased the target in only 4.3 overs. 

Pakistan, on the other hand, posted 160-7 against Oman and then dismissed their opponents for just 67 runs in 17 overs.

Standout performers for Pakistan so far include wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Haris, who scored 66 off 43 balls, including seven fours and three sixes, and left-arm spinner Sufiyan Muqeem, who took 2/7 in three overs.

Despite Pakistan’s promising start, the overall T20I head-to-head record favors India, who have won 10 of the 13 encounters. In the Asia Cup T20 format, India leads 2-1. 

Their most recent meeting came during the 2024 T20 World Cup in New York, where Rohit Sharma’s India narrowly defeated Babar Azam’s Pakistan in a low-scoring thriller.

Playing XIs

Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Mohammad Haris (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Salman Ali Agha (c), Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed.

India: Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah.