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After suffering a major injury blow that ruled out star pacer Naseem Shah from the ODI World Cup 2023 contention, the Pakistan Cricket Team reportedly dealt another setback as they are the only team still awaiting visas among the nine sides travelling to India for the marquee event. The CWC 2023 is scheduled to commence on October 5 while Pakistan will play their first game against the Netherlands on Friday, October 6.
Ahead of the World Cup, the Men in Green are scheduled to face 2019 CWC runners-up New Zealand in a warm-up game on Friday, September 29 followed by their second warm-up game against Australia on October 3 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Due to the complicated and tense political backdrop, Pakistan's initial plan to travel to UAE early next week was reportedly cancelled.
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According to ESPNCricinfo, Pakistan, who are still awaiting visas, now plan to reach Dubai early next Wednesday and fly to Hyderabad from there for their warm-up game against New Zealand. The reports also suggested that the PCB made an application for visas over a week ago and is hopeful to get visa approvals from India for their players and staff before their departure for Hyderabad.
Notably, ever since the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, travel between the two countries has been limited. Since then, India and Pakistan played just one bilateral series in 2012-13, which was a short white-ball series that took place in India. The Indian cricket team have not travelled to Pakistan for a bilateral series since 2006. However, the ODI World Cup 2023 will be Pakistan's first visit to India after the T20I World Cup in 2016.
