IND-W vs PAK-W: India's no-handshake stance stays on at WT20 World Cup as Harmanpreet Kaur ignores Fatima Sana post toss

India's stance on the no-handshake policy against Pakistan in cricket continued as Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur refused to shake hands with her Pakistani counterpart Fatima Sana after the toss just before their Women's T20 World Cup 2026 opener in Birmingham on Sunday.

India's no-handshake policy started during the 2025 Asia Cup when then men's captain Suryakumar Yadav did not shake hands with then-Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha, as a protest against the Pahalgam terror attack and in solidarity with India's Operation Sindoor.

Since then, no Indian captain shook hands with their Pakistani counterparts, not even other members in either of the teams. The Indian women's team followed it too during the Asia Cup and the ODI World Cup last year. Harmanpreet didn't even look at Sana after the toss and walked away.

Earlier, on the eve of the game, Harmanpreet Kaur was asked about whether India will shake hands with the Pakistan players. The Indian captain gave a neutral answer. “I think we are here for cricket, and we only talk about cricket, except that we don't talk about anything,” Harmanpreet had said.

"Cricket has been our dream from day one, and we only discuss cricket and tomorrow's game," added the Indian captain. However, things aren't the same in other sports. In 2025, the Indian and Pakistan hockey players shook hands during a match in Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia.

India win toss, opt to bat first

Meanwhile, India opted to bat first after Harmanpreet won the toss. India have included Bharti Fulmali in the eleven for the match. Harmanpreet explained the good nature of the pitch as her reason for opting to bat first.

“We will bat first. I think it's a very good pitch to bat on, so we just thought let's bat and set a decent total on the board. The last World Cup definitely has given us a lot of confidence and we just want to carry that confidence to this World Cup,” Harmanpreet told Mel Jones after the ross.

“We have plugged a lot of areas and now it's only about playing good cricket and we are looking forward to that. Bharti's playing today. And yeah, Yastika did really well, but today we thought of going with Bharti. We are going with three spinners and two medium pacers,” she added.

Interestingly, This was India women's first toss win after eight successive losses in T20Is. This is also India's first toss win after 12 consecutive toss losses on English soil in T20Is since 2022.

IND-W vs PAK-W playing XIs

India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Bharti Fulmali, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Shree Charani, Shreyanka Patil

Pakistan: Gull Feroza, Muneeba Ali(w), Ayesha Zafar, Saira Jabeen, Aliya Riaz, Natalia Pervaiz, Fatima Sana(c), Rameen Shamim, Nashra Sandhu, Tasmia Rubab, Sadia Iqbal.