Our Bureau
Guwahati
The upcoming ICC Women’s World Cup is set to be held in India and Sri Lanka and the opening ceremony of the tournament is scheduled to be held in Guwahati on September 30th. As the political ties between India and Pakistan have taken a nose dive since the Pahalgam terrorist attack, Pakistan would not be taking part in the opening ceremony.
Due to the tense political ties between both nations, Pakistan will not be playing any of their matches in India throughout the tournament and will play all their matches at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka. As per the reports, it is being speculated that Pakistan’s decision to not to travel to India is based on a recent policy that has been adopted by both nations in recent times of not crossing the border to compete in ICC tournaments for the next three years.
The example of this policy was seen in earlier part of this year when India refused to travel to Pakistan to participate in the Champions Trophy 2025 due to the geopolitical tensions between the nations. After the refusal, all their matches were organised in the United Arab Emirates and eventually India ended up winning the whole thing.
Pakistan will be starting their World Cup campaign against their fellow subcontinent team, Bangladesh, on October 2nd at the R. Premadasa Stadium and will play their league stage games in the same stadium. And if they manage to qualify to the semi-finals on October 29 and the final on November 2, Colombo will host both matches.
Pakistan squad for ICC Women’s World Cup 2025:
Fatima Sana (c), Muneeba Ali Siddiqui (vc), Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig, Eyman Fatima, Nashra Sundhu, Natalia Parvaiz, Omaima Sohail, Rameen Shamim, Sadaf Shamas, Sadia Iqbal, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Sidra Amin, Sidra Nawaz (wicket-keeper), and Syeda Aroob Shah.
