The India-Pakistan match in the group stage had raised some eyebrows when the Indian team led by Suryakumar Yadav decided to skip the handshakes with the Pakistani team led by Salman Ali Agha. This extended to the coin toss where the captains didn’t shake hands and after the game the Indian players didn’t even shake hands with the officials.
Things changed a bit during the Super 4s match on Sunday thanks to head coach Gautam Gambhir. He asked for a change in the procedure. A video circulating online shows Gambhir asking the Indian players to leave the locker room to shake hands with the umpires. But there was a condition: handshakes were only for the officials, not the Pakistani players.
🗣️ Arey umpire se to mil loo!!
— KKR Karavan (@KkrKaravan) September 21, 2025
Gautam Gambhir invited the Indian players to exchange handshakes—but only with the umpires 😂pic.twitter.com/iBkdhye87j
After the game Suryakumar went as far as to downplay the idea of an India-Pakistan rivalry in cricket. He told the media that they should stop framing it as such. You’re talking about a rivalry but a real rivalry is when two teams play each other 15-20 times and one team is slightly ahead 8-7. Then you can say it’s a close rivalry. But when it’s 3-0 or 10-1 or whatever the stats are, it’s not a rivalry anymore, he said.
Suryakumar was full of praise for Abhishek Sharma who was the standout among the Indian batsmen. He also praised how Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill work together as an opening pair. These guys are making it easy for me. They’ve shown a lot of character. They kept their cool even after the first 10 overs. said the game starts now. Abhishek and Gill are like fire and ice together; they just click, Suryakumar said during the post-match presentation.
