India Won't Travel To Pakistan For Asia Cup 2023, Says Jay Shah

The Indian cricket team won't be travelling to Pakistan for the 2023 Asia Cup, Asian Cricket Council chief Jay Shah said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 91st BCCI Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mumbai on Tuesday. The 2023 Asia Cup is slated to be hosted by Pakistan and sources had earlier said that the BCCI was open to sending Team India to participate in the tournament. Shah, who is also the BCCI secretary, said that the 2023 Asia Cup may be played in a neutral venue and not Pakistan.

India had last toured Pakistan for a bilateral series in 2005-06 under the leadership of Rahul Dravid. India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral cricket series since 2012-13 when Pakistan had toured India for three T20Is and as many ODIs. Since then, both teams have not played in bilateral series, and the teams have just met in world events or Asia Cup.

Matches between the two sides are always highly anticipated and stadiums go full house. The tickets of the two team's T20 World Cup 2022 on October 23 were sold out within hours of its release.

Of late, Pakistan have give some memorable performances against India and they even broke the World Cup jinx against India by defeating them in the T20 World Cup last year in the UAE.

Taking note of that performance, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja recently said that Team India have now started to give Pakistan respect and hence the Babar Azam-led side needs to be appreciated for giving India a tough fight.

"These are games are more about the mentality, rather than skill and talent. Even small teams can beat big teams, if they have the temperament of not giving up. Pakistan have always been the underdogs heading into (World Cup) games against India. But, they have started to