Harmanpreet ignores Fatima as India maintain no handshake policy with Pakistan in Women's World Cup

India and Pakistan maintained the no-handshake policy in their ICC Women’s World Cup match in Colombo on Sunday after the drama between the two arch-rivals in the Men’s Asia Cup recently. After Suryakumar Yadav and Salman Agha in the men’s game , it was Harmanpreet Kaur and Fatima Sana ignoring each other during the toss, which was won the by the latter, with Pakistan electing to field at the R Premadasa Stadium.

India and Pakistan have had contrasting starts to the 13th edition of the showpiece event in women’s cricket. While the Women in Blue defeated Sri Lanka by 59 runs (DLS Method) in a rain-affected tournament opener in Guwahati on Tuesday, Sana and Co suffered a seven-wicket thrashing against Bangladesh in Colombo two days later.

Renuka back in place of an unwell Amanjot

And on Sunday, both teams made a change to their lineup – senior pacer Renuka Singh Thakur replacing an unwell Amanjot Kaur for India and Sadaf Shamas coming in place of Omaima Sohail for Pakistan.

Amanjot had top-scored for India in their victory over Sri Lanka with a score of 57 and forged a 103-run stand for the seventh-wicket with Deepti Sharma that rescued Harmanpreet and Co from a shaky position of 124/6 after they were invited to bat.

While Pakistan continue to lead India in men’s ODIs, their head-to-head record is completely dominated by India – who have won all 11 meetings against their arch-rivals since they first met in December 2005, with four of those meetings occurring in ICC World Cups.

Harmanpreet and Co will be hoping to extend that winning streak on Sunday as they aim to begin their home World Cup campaign with back-to-back victories.

India vs Pakistan playing XIs

India: Pratika Rawal, Smriti Mandhana, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh(wk), Sneh Rana, Renuka Singh Thakur, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani

Pakistan: Muneeba Ali, Sadaf Shamas, Sidra Amin, Rameen Shamim, Aliya Riaz, Sidra Nawaz(wk), Fatima Sana(c), Natalia Pervaiz, Diana Baig, Nashra Sandhu, Sadia Iqbal