T20 World Cup: 'Pakistan knows it can't win against India'

'When a player realises that they cannot win, they run away from the field.'

India's 1983 World Cup winning all-rounder Kirti Azad says Pakistan's refusal to play against India in the upcoming T20 World Cup clash is because they are scared of losing against India.

India lead Pakistan by 15-1 margin in World Cups across formats, including 8-1 in T20 World Cups.

Azad's comments came after Pakistan on Sunday announced a boycott of its high-profile T20 World Cup group league match against India.

• Also Read: T20 World Cup 2026: The Full Schedule

"The Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan grants approval to the Pakistan Cricket Team to participate in the ICC World T20 2026, however, the Pakistan Cricket Team shall not take the field in the match scheduled on 15th February 2026 against India," the Pakistan government posted on social media.

Azad said it is clear that Pakistan are avoiding playing against India because they are aware they can't win against them.

He also stated that India should have withdrawn from the Asia Cup last year to send an international message against terrorism after the Pahalgam terrorist attack in 2025.

"Pakistan knows it can't win so it thought to save face... India had a great opportunity when 26 people were killed in Baisaran (valley in Pahalgam). India shouldn't have played in the World Cup [Asia Cup] then. This would have sent a message internationally that we are against terrorists and that Pakistan is the biggest terrorist state," he said.

"When a player realises that they cannot win, they run away from the field. They are 'rannchhodd', they have run away from the field. If you are participating in a championship, you should play without any discrimination. We defeated them in Operation Sindoor and other wars. We would have defeated them here too. So, they are not even playing," said BJP MP Shashank Mani said.

'T20 World Cup row spiralling out of control'

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor criticised the politicisation of cricket, calling Pakistan's boycott of the T20 World Cup 2026 match against India "disgraceful".

Tharoor said cricket is being politicised and called it disgraceful after Pakistan's decision to boycott the T20 WC match against India. He stated that the whole T20 World Cup row is spiralling out of control following Mustafizur Rahman's exclusion from IPL 2026, following which Bangladesh refused to play their T20 World Cup matches in India and were excluded from the mega-event.

"It is pretty disgraceful that sport has been politicised in this way on both sides, frankly. I don't think that Mustafizur should have been denied his contract to play in Kolkata. It was most unfortunate. Intrusion of politics, I think the Bangladeshi reaction was an overreaction but it is also a reflection of the same and Pakistan is trying to show its solidarity with Bangladesh. This whole thing is spiralling out of control," Tharoor said.

"I think we need to really need to come to an understanding that sports, especially a sport like Cricket which means so much to all the people, should be a means of bringing us together at least on the playing field, rather than allowing this to go on like this. I honestly think this is now a wake up call for all concerned to contact each other on an emergency basis, the ICC could be the platform for it - just say, let's call off this nonsense...You can't go on like this forever," he added.

Congress MP Ujjwal Raman Singh said India should have refused to play against Pakistan in the Asia Cup.

"From the beginning, I was of the firm belief that ever since the Pahalgam attack occurred, India should have refused to play against them. We should have raised this issue on a global scale that we will not play any match. But India played against them after Operation Sindoor. Even the ICC is so helpless that it is not being stern with Pakistan. ICC should ban Pakistan if it does something like this...This will not be tolerated; the Govt of India and ICC should take cognisance of this. India should present its side strongly that this will not be tolerated," he stated.