Women's ODI World Cup: India vs Pakistan - After 'No Handshake', 'toss controversy' hits rivalry fixture in Colombo

Given how the India-Pakistan men's clashes panned out in the recent Asia Cup, there was immense hype around the women's fixture at the Women's ODI World Cup. Historically, the women's clashes have been devoid of any aggression and drama. In fact, the two teams have often been very friendly off the field, although they hadn't met in a cricket match since the Pahalgam attacks in April 2025. To be fair, the equation between the men's sides also took a drastic change only after that unfortunate incident.

Regardless, the India-Pakistan clash was always going to be the most awaited clash of the Women's ODI World Cup due to a lot of reasons. On expected lines, there was instant drama and we didn't even need the match to start for it to happen. Given that Colombo is a neutral venue, India's captain Harmanpreet Kaur was technically still the home skipper and when he flipped the coin in the air, the announcer Mel Jones and match referee Shandre Fritz both heard Pakistan skipper Fatima Sana's call wrongly.

This confusion was quickly resolved and the call was rightly awarded to Pakistan and Sana. It must be noted that this was possible as Kaur didn't object to the decision as otherwise, we may have had the toss redone like the 2011 men's ODI World Cup final. On winning the toss, Sana opted to field, going with the general trend of matches in Colombo.

Meanwhile, there were expectedly no handshakes between Kaur and Sana, going with the trends of how things transpired during the men's Asia Cup last month. We can safely conclude that this is how things will be during India-Pakistan matches for an indefinite period until the political tensions between the two countries see an improvement.

The toss controversy is the second spark in three days after former Pakistan cricketer Sana Mir had controversially used the term 'Azaad Kashmir' while describing Pakistan's youngster Natalia Pervaiz during Pakistan's opening fixture of the tournament. The statement instantly snowballed into a massive controversy that set social media ablaze. Not surprisingly, Mir had to clarify her statements through a social media post but it wasn't of much help.