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3 min readFeb 10, 2026 06:34 PM IST
India and Pakistan players line up ahead of their match at the 2024 T20 World Cup. (AP)
The news that trickled out of Islamabad late on Monday, that the Pakistan government has given the go-ahead to their team to play their T20 World Cup group-stage fixture against India in Colombo on Sunday, was received well by the Indian team, assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate said.
The Dutchman, speaking two days before their fixture against Namibia in New Delhi, insisted that the team had been mentally preparing for the fixture as if the game was always going to be played.
“First of all, I think it’s great that the game is back on, we never changed (our) preparation (or thought) that the game wasn’t going to happen. We always had an impression that something would transpire and we would play, so it’s not a big change in the way we go about things,” he told media at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground on Tuesday. “We kind of got confirmation late yesterday. Early this morning, it started coming through that the game was going ahead. We’d like to have another chance to play against a quality side and it’s good for the team.”
The cloud over international cricket’s biggest fixture has persisted ever since Pakistan announced a boycott of the match in solidarity with Bangladesh, who decided they will not travel to India after their pacer, Mustafizur Rahman, had been evicted from the IPL by the BCCI. The impasse led to Bangladesh being forced to forfeit their place in the ongoing tournament.
While Pakistan had maintained that they would persist with the protest against the treatment of their neighbours, following successful negotiations between cricket officials from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as well as the ICC, they have decided to play the marquee fixture.
Ten Doeschate insisted that the Indian camp is trying to steer away from the political differences between the two countries and focus on cricket. In that context, the game going ahead is good news.
“We try and stay clear of all the politics. I’ve mentioned before about the sentiments of the country and know the different politics between the two countries. But I think it’s really important for us just to focus on the cricket side of things. It’s going to be a challenge going to Colombo where Pakistan have been for the last two weeks and we are fully focused on just bringing our best game to that fixture next week,” he said.
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