By Megha Mallick,News18

Copyright news18

In what has come as a diversion from the Indian cricket team’s ‘no handshake’ stance with their Pakistan counterparts at the ongoing Asia Cup, Indian and Pakistan at the SAFF U-17 Championship high-fived each other at the start of their game at the Racecourse International Stadium in Colombo.
There has been a massive hue and cry around India’s stance of not shaking hands with Pakistan in the light of the Pahalgam terror attack in April.
At the end of the Super 4 match between India and Pakistan at the Asia Cup on Sunday, September 21, Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya had walked off the field without initiating any conversation with the opposition, thus maintaining the stance.
Just 15 hours after the motion, it has come as a slight surprise that the U17 boys didn’t follow the same and went along high-fiving their Pakistan counterparts, raising questions on differing stances across sports.
India have already qualified for the semifinals and if they beat Pakistan on Monday, they will top the group.
“An India–Pakistan game always brings excitement and attention, but we remind the boys to treat it like any other match. The focus should be on playing good football and executing our plan, rather than the occasion itself,” India coach Bibiano Fernandes was quoted as saying by AIFF.
“We’ve told the boys to stay humble and focused. Every game in this tournament is different, and Pakistan will pose a new challenge. The key is to keep improving, stick to our game plan and play with the same hunger we’ve shown so far,” Fernandes added.
Both India and Pakistan are on six points from two games each and have +7 goal difference; Pakistan are ahead with a higher ‘goals for’ count.
India are coming off 6-0 and 1-0 wins over Maldives and Bhutan, respectively. Pakistan first thrashed Bhutan 4-0 and then registered a 5-2 win over the Maldives.