Asian Games: Handshake, Naqvi the posers as India set up Pakistan final

Come Saturday, the men’s cricket finale of Aichi Nagoya Asian Games is certain to guarantee the fizz the last day of competition the continental showpiece wanted. It will be India versus Pakistan at the Karogi Athletic Park but more than the outcome of the match, the chatter seems to be on whether there will be a softening of stance on the handshake issue.

It’s been exactly a year since Suryakumar Yadav’s men refused to shake hands with their arch rivals across the order in the Asia Cup—not once but thrice with the crisis snowballing when they did not accept the winners’ trophy from Mohsin Naqvi. The practice continued in both men and women’s T20 World Cup as well as the women’s Asia Cup last month in Dubai where Harmanpreet Kaur & Co defeated Sri Lanka but kept Naqvi, president of Asian Cricket Council (ACC), waiting again at the presentation.

 It’s a given that the cricket teams’ action has a tacit buy-in from the powers that-be, but the situation is somewhat different in an event like the Asian Games. The multi-discipline extravaganza is the property of Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), where cricket is just another event with the ACC providing the technical and logistical support. Now that a India-Pakistan final has been firmed up, one hopes that the OCA and ACC get into a huddle at the earliest to prevent a fiasco at the podium.

The protocol demands that the top three nations take to the podium for the medal ceremony with the nominated guest honouring them with the individual medals. A possible presence of Naqvi, the chairman of Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) as well their interior minister rather than a OCA dignitary may escalate the problem—what with a global audience (including non-cricket ones) keeping an eye on their TV screens. The handshake, though not mandatory, has long been an accepted norm of courtesy but it’s extremely unlikely that there will be a shift in stance from Shreyas Iyer and his men against Shahibzada Farhan & Co.

Whatever happens after the final, the contest at hand holds promise after the damp squib in 2023 in Hangzhou where India were ruled the winners against Afghanistan on the basis of their superior ICC rankings after the final was rained off. A star-studded India, with several members of the squad which retained the T20 World Cup at home earlier this year, snubbed a listless Lanka by 124 runs in the semi-finals on Thursday to make the final as Pakistan beat Bangladesh by six wickets in other semis earlier in the day.

Despite having a rocky start after being sent into bat, India rode an unbeaten 80 by Ishan Kishan to put up a respectable total of 169 for seven on the board. The Lankan chase folded rather surprisingly for a record low T20I score of 45 in just 9.5 overs.  

Sri Lanka managed to get the T20 heavyweights in a bit of a spot as the Men in Blue lost Abhishek Sharma & Sanju Samson cheaply inside powerplay. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi led the counterattack by playing in his characteristic fearless approach and smashed some cracking shots.

However, just as the 15-year-old was racing towards a 50, he mistimed one straight to Sineth Jayawardena while trying to go after Sahan Arachchige. As wickets tumbled at the other end, Ishan held up on his end well. The left-hander looked in good nick and brought up his 50 in 33 balls.

It was Sri Lanka’s lowest-ever T20I score, with the previous worst a 77 against South Africa in New York back in 2024.

Brief scores: India 169/7 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 80 not out; Sahan Arachchige 2/28) beat Sri Lanka 45/10 in 9.5 overs (Nuwanidu Fernando 15; Abhishek Sharma 2/2, Jasprit Bumrah 2/7, Axar Patel 2/8) by 124 runs.