India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana did not shake hands at the toss for the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup clash at Edgbaston on Sunday, continuing the break from the sport’s tradition amid political animosity between the two countries. This started during the 2025 men’s Asia Cup, where India boycotted the handshakes in light of the Pahalgam terror attack.
Both Harmanpreet and Fatima were all smiles during the toss, but remained awkwardly away from each other after the flip landed in India’s favor. At least this was in contrast to the previous clashes, which have seen the captains put up almost poker-like serious faces.
“We will bat first,” Harmanpreet said at the toss. “I think it’s a very good pitch to bat on, so we just
thought let’s bat and set a decent total on the board. I think we all are very excited. The last World Cup definitely has given us a lot of confidence and we just want to carry that confidence to this World Cup,” she added.
Fatima Sana said she would have batted, too.
“I think if we had won the toss, we were going to bat first as well because it looks like a batting track. I think as a team, we are doing great in the batting and the bowling as well. So we know we have a good bowling unit, so we just need to improve in the batting side, so we are good to go,” she said.
Harmanpreet had avoided a direct answer to the pre-match question about handshakes.
India vs Pakistan Playing 11s
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Bharti Fulmali, Richa Ghosh (WK), Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Shreyanka Patil, Shree Charani, Kranti Gaud
Pakistan: Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali (WK), Ayesha Zafar, Saira Jabeen, Aliya Riaz, Natalia Pervaiz, Fatima Sana (C), Rameen Shamim, Nashra Sandhu, Tasmia Rubab, Sadia Iqbal
