DistantNews
Support us
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates /Sports

Women's Asia Cup: No handshake again as Pakistan win toss and choose to bat against India

From Khaleej Times · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first against India in their Women's Asia Cup 2026 match in Dubai.
  • The captains again did not shake hands at the toss, continuing the tournament's handshake dispute.
  • India had won its opening two matches and secured a knockout place, while Pakistan entered after beating Thailand.

Pakistan captain Fatima Sana won the toss and chose to bat first against India in the Women's Asia Cup 2026 match in Dubai on Saturday. The toss again ended without a handshake between Sana and India captain Harmanpreet Kaur.

India came into the match after winning its opening two games and securing a place in the knockout stage. Pakistan had opened its campaign with a victory over Thailand and still had a match against Hong Kong, regardless of the result in Dubai.

The teams have also met frequently in recent T20Is. India had won nine of its last 10 matches against Pakistan, with Pakistan’s only victory in that run coming in the 2022 Asia Cup.

“We're gonna bat first because we want to put a maximum total here,” Sana said. She added that Pakistan trusted its bowling attack and wanted to play according to the pitch after discussing its recent batting wobble.

Kaur said India was pleased to bowl first and would try to restrict Pakistan to a low total. India’s lineup included Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma and Deepti Sharma, while Pakistan selected Muneeba Ali, Sadaf Shamas, Sana and Nashra Sandhu.

We're gonna bat first because we want to put a maximum total here

· Fatima SanaPakistan's captain explained the decision to bat after winning the toss.
About this summary

Originally published by Khaleej Times in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog