BCCI’s No-Handshake Policy Continues in India vs Pakistan U-19 World Cup Clash

You have the option of playing against Pakistan in the senior Indian team, women’s team, and youth ODIs. But you are not allowed to shake hands with the Pakistani team members. The no-handshake rule, which has been in place since the Asia Cup 2025 and was introduced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was the talking point of the year gone by. The no-handshake rule was also seen in the India-Pakistan match of the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2026 Super Six match held in Zimbabwe on Sunday.

Most often, the two captains will exchange greetings by shaking hands during the toss. However, when India's Ayush Mhatre and Pakistan's Farhan Yousuf, both captains, stepped onto the pitch in Bulawayo, the expected result occurred. There was no greeting, only a toss, and the decision to chase was made to remain in the tournament by Pakistan. India is almost through to the semi-finals, but it needs to avoid a major defeat.

Since Pakistan carried out the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, India's attitude towards them has changed. The government has decided that the two teams can only play each other in multi-national tournaments.

India's senior team captain Suryakumar Yadav set a precedent by refusing to greet Pakistan's captain Salman Ali Agha three times during the 2025 Asia Cup. This trend continued with Harmanpreet Kaur and Fatima Sana ignoring each other during the 2025 Women's ODI World Cup. Similar incidents occurred during the 2025 Men's Under-19 Asia Cup and are now being seen in the Men's Under-19 ODI World Cup.

There were no handshakes during the India vs. Bangladesh match in the Under-19 World Cup. However, the Bangladesh Cricket Board later clarified that this was unintentional. It should be noted that India's relations with Bangladesh are also not very good after the brutal killings of Hindus. Bangladesh withdrew from the 2026 T20 World Cup simply because they did not feel safe traveling to India.