{"id":1645,"date":"2026-02-10T15:35:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=1645"},"modified":"2026-02-10T15:35:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:35:38","slug":"t20-world-cup-india-look-forward-to-pakistan-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=1645","title":{"rendered":"T20 World Cup: India look forward to Pakistan \u2018challenge\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2026\/02\/1019362821ce00a.webp\" \/><\/p>\n<p>India on Tuesday said it would be \u201ca challenge\u201d to face a \u201cquality\u201d Pakistan team in Colombo after Islamabad decided to play the blockbuster T20 World Cup clash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great that the game is back on, we kind of never changed the preparation,\u201d said India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate.<\/p>\n<p>India will face a second Group A match against Namibia on Thursday in New Delhi before flying to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>It means a quick turnaround for Sunday\u2019s match, the biggest and most lucrative clash in world cricket.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a challenge going to Colombo where Pakistan have been for the last two weeks,\u201d added Ten Doeschate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are delighted to have another chance to play against a quality side in the first phase of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are fully focused on just bringing our best game to that fixture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka, who will host the match that generates multi-millions of dollars in advertising, broadcast rights, sponsorship and tourism, also praised the decision.<\/p>\n<p>Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, in a social media post, thanked Pakistan\u2019s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for \u201censuring the game we all love goes on\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--left  media--embed  media--uneven media--tweet\" data-original-src=\"https:\/\/x.com\/anuradisanayake\/status\/2020928822288490780\">\n<div class=\"media__item  media__item--twitter  \"><span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/anuradisanayake\/status\/2020928822288490780\"><\/a>\n    <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Pakistan, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1971793\">edged out<\/a> Netherlands in the tournament opener on Saturday, would have conceded two points if they had forfeited the match.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan will play all their T20 World Cup matches in Sri Lanka as part of an International Cricket Council deal that ensures the two nations only meet on neutral territory.<\/p>\n<p>India captain Suryakumar Yadav said on Friday before their opening <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1971699\">win <\/a>against the USA that his team would travel to Colombo for the clash, whether the game was on or not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe haven\u2019t said no to playing them,\u201d Suryakumar said. \u201cOur flights are booked and we are going to Colombo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1972309\/t20-world-cup-india-look-forward-to-pakistan-challenge\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India on Tuesday said it would be \u201ca challenge\u201d to face a \u201cquality\u201d Pakistan team in Colombo after Islamabad decided to play the blockbuster T20 World&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertaonment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}