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IND vs PAK: Irfan Pathan is stuck! Chaos over shaking hands and hugging Pakistani players after the match
Sanjeev Kumar | January 23, 2026 12:23 PM CST

Irfan Pathan Ind Vs Pak Handshake

Relations between India and Pakistan have deteriorated more than before in the last one year. The impact of political and military conflict is also visible on sports. Especially on the cricket field, the situation seems more serious. While till now visiting each other's country for ICC or ACC tournaments had stopped, now the ruckus of 'not shaking hands' has also started. But amidst all this, Team India's former all-rounders Irfan Pathan and Stuart Binny are embroiled in controversies because after a match, both of them were seen shaking hands and hugging Pakistani players.

First defeat was at the hands of Pakistan

A 'Double Wicket' tournament was organized at the World Cricket Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in which teams consisting of former players from India and Pakistan were also participating. In this on Thursday 22 January India and Pakistan A match was played between. Batting first in this match, Pakistan scored 56 runs in 4 overs. For that, Shoaib Malik and Imran Nazir batted brilliantly.

In response, Indian captain Irfan Pathan and Stuart Binny came out to bat but they could score only 51 runs in 4 overs. In this too, Pathan alone scored 49 runs, while Binny could not even open the account. In this way Pakistan won this match by 5 runs. But what happened after that was more discussed than the result of the match.

Irfan Pathan started hugging again

As soon as the match ended, Irfan Pathan and Binny shook hands with Shoaib Malik and also hugged. After this, all the players of Indian team and Pakistani team also shook hands with each other, as has been happening for years. But after last year's incidents, this was the first time when players of India and Pakistan were seen shaking hands. In such a situation, its photos went viral on social media and Pakistani users trolled Irfan a lot regarding this.

The trend of not shaking hands started from Asia Cup

In fact, the attack by Pakistani terrorists in Pahalgam in April last year and the India-Pakistan military conflict in May further worsened the already tense relations. Its effect was also visible on the cricket matches of both the countries. Just a few weeks after the military confrontation, the India-Pakistan match in the former players' tournament held in England had to be canceled because former Indian players including Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh had to face severe criticism for taking part in this match and then they boycotted the match.

After this, India-Pakistan matches took place in Asia Cup T20 but there was a lot of tension here. The entire team including Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav had refused to shake hands with Pakistani players during the toss and after the match. The same situation prevailed in all three matches during the tournament. Then even in the Women's World Cup, the players did not shake hands during the India-Pakistan match, whereas this was also seen in the Asia Cup Rising Stars tournament.

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