Asia Cup Final Toss Drama: Waqar Younis Steps in After PCB Blocks Ravi Shastri from Interviewing Pakistan Skipper

Dubai: Animosity between India and Pakistan teams continued before the mega final of the Asia Cup, with two presenters — India’s Ravi Shastri and Pakistan’s Waqar Younis — conducting the snap interviews at the toss.

This is the first time in the history of international cricket that two former players will be conducting the toss interview, as Pakistan didn’t want to speak to Indian presenter Shastri following the bitter build-up to the title clash.

It is learnt that from among the broadcasters, Shastri, who has done the toss presentation during the earlier two Indo-Pak games in the tournament, had been assigned to speak to both Suryakumar Yadav and Salman Ali Agha after the toss.

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However, a request was sent to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for a neutral presenter. When the ACC went back to BCCI with the request, they had clearly mentioned that Shastri can’t be replaced.

As a middle-of-the-road solution, it was decided that Pakistan skipper Salman would speak to his country’s pace legend Waqar, while Surya would interact with former India head coach Shastri.

Also, in a departure from convention, Salman did the trophy shoot alone instead of doing it alongside his Indian counterpart.

As per sources in the BCCI, the ACC had never informed them about the toss photo shoot. It must be mentioned that even during the 2024 T20 World Cup final in Barbados, there were no photoshoots involving India and South African skippers Rohit Sharma and Aiden Markram.