As anticipated, the political masters of Pakistan have finally directed its national cricket team to lift the boycott and play India on 15 February, 2026, as scheduled in Colombo . The Masters must've thought the money at stake is too lucrative to continue indulging in such kind of grumpy politics. Of course, they had imposed some pre-conditions that included making the 'handshake' a mandatory protocol, but the ICC looked the other way. So, the PCB takes it as protecting the 'spirit of cricket'. The Indian cricket board , the sponsors, the TV channels and millions of fans who do not necessarily mix patriotism with sports, if it's cricket in particular, must be deliriously ecstatic that all the revenues and hype and excitement shall be there for harvest thr oughout the ICC Men's T20 World Cup-2026 , co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka . Most of the Indians fans must also be ecstatic to have their heroes go on vanquishing the enemy neighbor and humiliating t...
West Indies can blame only themselves. Their negative mindset was palpable in the match against India. They decided to rest few of their best players signifying their 'will to lose'. It has been widely discussed that they wanted to meet Pak and not the Aussies in the QF. Well, there must be some truth in all this. If you become choosy and want to experiment about losing you just lose the competitive spirit and so cannot perform to win from there. You cannot expect a player like Gayle to just come and deliver, he lost such a huge opportunity of having some invaluable practice against India.
Pakistan has been becoming less unpredictable meaning more consistent of late and this is a healthy sign. They are already in the semis and need to win just two more matches to achieve their second title since the 1992 victory. Incidentally in that 1992 WC WI beat Pak by this same margin of 10 wickets inspired by young Brian Lara.
And, now for the big one tomorrow! India meet Australia in the second QF at Ahmedabad. Problem is India has been very predictable of late in engineering huge batting collapses and not able to bat through the full fifty overs. Like their neighbor Pakistan India too need to be a little unpredictable. They need to perform fully to their potential if they want to reach the semis. There is always an inherent spirit of competition between Ind and Pak, what one does or achieves, the other naturally tries to overdo or achieve the same. Right! Pak beat Australia, so India must do the same or even better! They should also learn from Pak bowlers to add more sting to their bowling effort.
Tomorrow must come and come sooner for this big one!
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