It lasted barely ten seconds, yet somehow felt much longer. When India’s captain Ayush Mhatre and Bangladesh’s stand-in skipper Zawad Abrar met for the toss in Bulawayo on Saturday, neither reached out for the traditional pre-match handshake. Cameras lingered, the two teenagers turned their backs, and that was that.
Bangladesh moved quickly to cool things down. In a written statement the board explained that regular captain Azizul Hakim was “unable to attend the toss” through illness and that the missed greeting was down to “a momentary lapse in concentration”. It went on: “There was no intent whatsoever to show discourtesy or disregard towards the opposition … The players have also been reminded of their responsibility to maintain the highest standards of sportsmanship.”
India’s board, the BCCI, has so far kept its counsel.
The incident slots neatly, if a little depressingly, into a pattern. Over the past year India have started several matches against Pakistan without handshakes; now the chill appears to have spread east. Diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Dhaka have been deteriorating and cricket, never far from politics in the region, is beginning to feel the squeeze.
Earlier this month the BCCI told Kolkata Knight Riders to release Mustafizur Rahman for the coming IPL campaign, a move that upset many in Bangladesh. In response the BCB has refused to send its men’s side to India for the 2026 T20 World Cup, leaving the ICC to mediate. Those talks rumble on with no resolution in sight.
Back to Bulawayo: the teenagers got on with the game once the coin was tossed, sharing a word or two between overs and – reassuringly – lining up for post-match handshakes. No further flashpoints, no disciplinary notes.
One of Bangladesh’s support staff, speaking quietly outside the dressing-room, shrugged: “They’re kids, really – sometimes they just forget.” An Indian official made the same point off the record, adding that both squads had “mixed happily enough” at the hotel later in the evening.
So while the wider politics remain thorny, the two young sides appear to have moved on quickly. Whether their senior administrators can do the same is another question entirely.
