Who: India vs Pakistan
What: ICC Girls’s Cricket World Cup 2025
When: Sunday, October 5 at 09:30 GMT
The place: R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka
The best way to comply with: Al Jazeera Sport could have stay build-up from 06:30 GMT forward of our textual content commentary stream.
Cricket may take the backseat on yet one more Sunday when India meet Pakistan within the ICC Girls’s World Cup 2025 in Colombo amid lingering political stress between the South Asian neighbours.
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The eagerly awaited group-stage fixture will doubtless be bookended by questions surrounding the now-infamous handshakes between each side because the captains meet on the pre-match coin toss, and on the finish of the match, when each squads historically step again on the sector.
When India and Pakistan’s males’s groups met within the Asia Cup 2025, the Indian group and its captain didn’t shake arms with their Pakistani counterparts in all three fixtures on the event, resulting in furore and backlash that marred the event.
A high official of the Board for Management of Cricket in India (BCCI) has not dominated out a “no handshake” coverage for the Girls’s World Cup fixture, as properly.
“Whether or not there shall be handshakes, whether or not there shall be hugging, I can not guarantee you of something,” BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia advised the BBC’s Stumped podcast.
“I can not forecast something, however our relationship with that individual hostile nation is similar. There is no such thing as a change within the final week.”
‘Concentrate on the sport’
Whereas it might appear that cricket has been, as soon as once more, pushed into the background, each groups wish to overlook the controversial build-up and deal with the sport as an alternative.
“Clearly, we all know what’s occurring round us, however we attempt to keep targeted on the sport as a result of the World Cup is an occasion each participant waits for,” Pakistan’s captain Fatima Sana mentioned on Saturday.
Sana, whose group had been comprehensively overwhelmed by Bangladesh of their opening match, mentioned Pakistan will “deal with the event and on what we’ve got come right here for” when requested to touch upon the “exterior noise”.
The final time India performed Pakistan on the Girls’s World Cup, the gamers’ off-field interactions left an indelible mark on the sport and earned widespread reward from the followers.
On the 2022 event in New Zealand, Pakistan’s then-captain Bismah Maroof was surrounded by a bunch of Indian gamers as they cooed over her six-month-old daughter Fatima.
Jokes had been shared, selfies had been taken, and recollections had been made as gamers from the rival nations bonded exterior their dressing rooms properly after the match was over.
Sana, who was a part of the Pakistan squad in 2022, was requested whether or not the gamers will miss the spirit and camaraderie from three years in the past.
“We attempt to keep wholesome relationships with each group,” Sana replied.
“What occurred with Bismah’s daughter, when everybody mingled and loved collectively – as gamers, all of us like such moments, however the primary factor is to remain targeted [on the game].”
When the identical query was posed to India’s bowling coach Aavishankar Salvi, the journalist was notified that India won’t reply it.
Nevertheless, Salvi did say that India – who beat Sri Lanka of their opening recreation by 59 runs – may even “deal with the cricket” on Sunday.
#Throwback to this stunning second from the 2022 World Cup involving Bismah Maroof’s daughter and Indian ladies ❤️#CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/PuxFEC5O1Y
— Feminine Cricket (@imfemalecricket) April 25, 2024
‘The world shall be watching’
“We would like our ladies to take it simply as a recreation as a result of the World Cup is an extended marketing campaign and there shall be a variety of video games coming our approach,” he mentioned.
“Whenever you enter an enormous event, the world of focus is barely cricket, and it’s good to have the gamers into a great [head] house.”
The fixture is anticipated to attract enormous viewing figures and organisers will anticipate a sizeable crowd on the floor, as properly.
Sana, who additionally led Pakistan of their match towards India within the T20 World Cup 2024, admitted such elements make it a high-pressure fixture and one which “the entire world shall be watching”.
“There may be strain however the primary factor is how we deal with it. We’ll attempt to deal with our recreation, execute our plans, and play the way in which we’ve ready.”
What occurred within the final India vs Pakistan girls’s cricket match?
The groups final met within the ICC Girls’s T20 World Cup 2024 in Dubai, the place India emerged victorious by six wickets.
When was the final time Pakistan beat India in girls’s cricket?
Pakistan have solely overwhelmed India on three events, the final of which got here on October 7 on the T20 Girls’s Asia Cup 2022. Nida Dar’s all-round efficiency sealed Pakistan’s 13-run win in Bangladesh.
Will it rain in Colombo in the course of the India vs Pakistan match?
Rain is anticipated within the early hours of Sunday in Khettarama, the neighbourhood that homes the R Premadasa Stadium in Sri Lanka’s capital.
The climate will stay cloudy all through the day, with mild showers anticipated to return later within the night, as properly. This might result in delays or disruption of play.
There was loads of rainfall on Saturday earlier than Sri Lanka’s match towards Australia on the similar venue. The persistent rain led to the match being known as off with none play.
India vs Pakistan: Head-to-head in girls’s ODIs
India maintain an 11-0 lead over their neighbours in girls’s ODIs. All of India’s wins have include comfy margins, together with the 107-run victory on the ICC Girls’s World Cup 2022 in New Zealand.
Gamers to look at: India
- Smriti Mandhana: Extensively thought to be the very best limited-over batters in present-day girls’s cricket, Mandhana has swept most ladies’s ODI data previously two years. She is the top-ranked ODI batter by a distance and was the main run-scorer within the format in 2024. The Indian vice-captain has scored 4 ODI centuries in 2025, probably the most by any participant within the present 12 months.
- Deepti Sharma: The all-rounder poses an equal menace with bat and ball, and has carried out properly towards Pakistan in earlier encounters. Sharma’s right-arm off-break bowling shall be an enormous menace for Pakistan’s batters. She took three wickets and scored 54 runs in India’s World Cup opening win towards Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
Gamers to look at: Pakistan
- Sidra Amin: The veteran batter not too long ago turned the highest ODI century-maker for her nation together with her sixth ton within the collection towards South Africa. She comes into the essential match with good run-scoring kind and is thought to be the mainstay of Pakistan’s batting assault towards a powerful Indian bowling line-up.
- Nashra Sandhu: The unassuming gradual left-arm bowler has been Pakistan’s go-to spin choice lately and is third on the listing of high ODI wicket-takers for her nation. Sandhu has taken 16 wickets in Pakistan’s 9 ODIs in 2025, together with six in a match towards South Africa on September 22.
Type information: India
India entered the World Cup with a house collection loss and an away collection win within the bag. They had been examined by Sri Lanka within the event’s opening recreation, however recovered properly to start their World Cup marketing campaign with a win.
Final 5 ODIs (newest end result first): W L W L W L
Type information: Pakistan
Pakistan’s kind has dipped after their five-match unbeaten run at house within the World Cup qualifiers, the place they beat Bangladesh, Thailand and the West Indies to e-book a spot on this event. Sana’s group misplaced a house ODI collection to South Africa after which suffered a dramatic batting collapse of their opening World Cup recreation towards Bangladesh.
Final 5 ODIs (newest end result first): L W L L W
Crew information: India
India are anticipated to call an unchanged XI for his or her second match of the event.
Predicted XI: Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wicketkeeper), Amanjot Kaur, Sneh Rana, Kranti Goud, Shree Charani.
Crew information: Pakistan
Pakistan are more likely to area the identical XI that misplaced to Bangladesh, however there might be a case for changing Natalia Pervaiz with in-form all-rounder Aroob Shah.
Predicted XI: Muneeba Ali, Omaima Sohail, Sidra Amin, Rameen Shamim, Aliya Riaz, Sidra Nawaz (wicketkeeper), Fatima Sana (captain), Natalia Pervaiz, Diana Baig, Nashra Sandhu, Sadia Iqbal.
