New DelhiOn Wednesday, January 14, the second round of ticket sales for the forthcoming T20 World Cup 2026 began. For the first time in this round of allocations, tickets for the huge match between India and Pakistan went on sale, and as anticipated, the fans showed a great deal of interest. BookMyShow saw a spike in traffic within minutes of tickets going live, and the platform's servers crashed due to the volume of concurrent requests.
Since border tensions escalated last year and India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the brutal Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 lives, cricket relations between India and Pakistan have reached their lowest point. As a result, despite playing each other three times, including in the final, the players of both teams did not shake hands or engage in friendly banter during the Asia Cup last year.
India defeated Pakistan three times to win the Asia Cup, but there was more drama ahead when they refused to accept the trophy from Mohsin Naqvi, the head of the ACC, the head of the PCB, and Pakistan's interior minister. The Asia Cup trophy is still locked in the ACC office in Dubai, so the story is far from over.
Will the T20 World Cup continue to have a handshake policy?The no-handshake policy is likely to remain in place during the T20 World Cup, and even among the players, things are likely to get heated, just like they were during the Asia Cup. Even though the match will take place on February 15 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, the supporters appear to be very enthusiastic about the high-stakes encounter.
After facing the Netherlands in the tournament's opening match and the USA, who eliminated them from the T20 World Cup in 2024, this will be Pakistan's third league stage match. India's campaign will begin on the tournament's first day, February 7, when they play the USA. On February 12, they will play Namibia in Delhi.
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