The second phase of ticket sales for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2026 got underway on Wednesday (January 14). The tickets for the massive India vs Pakistan clash opened for the first time in this round of allocations, and on expected lines, it drew overwhelming interest from the fans. Within minutes of tickets going live, BookMyShow experienced a surge in traffic, and the volume of concurrent requests caused the platform's servers to crash.
The cricketing relations between India and Pakistan are at their lowest ever since the border tensions escalated last year, with India launching Operation Sindoor in response to the barbaric Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 lives. This led to the players of both teams not engaging in friendly banter nor did they shake hands during the Asia Cup last year, despite facing each other three time,s including in the final.
India beat Pakistan on all three occasions to win the Asia Cup as well but there was more drama in store as they refused to take the trophy from the ACC Chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the PCB Chief and the Interior Minister of Pakistan. The saga is not yet done as the Asia Cup trophy is still locked in the ACC office in Dubai.
No handshake policy to continue in the T20 World Cup?
Things are likely to be heated even among the players, as it was in the Asia Cup, during the T20 World Cup and the no-handshake policy is likely to continue. The fans seem to be extremely excited for the high-voltage clash, even as the match will be played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on February 15.
This will be Pakistan's third league stage encounter as they will face the Netherlands in the tournament opener and then the USA, who knocked them out of the T20 World Cup in 2024. As for India, they will also start their campaign on the opening day (February 7) of the tournament against the USA before locking horns against Namibia on February 12 in Delhi.
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