The Indian cricket team won’t be travelling to Pakistan for the 2023 Asia Cup, Asian Cricket Council chief Jay Shah said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 91st BCCI Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The 2023 Asia Cup is slated to be hosted by Pakistan and sources had earlier said that the BCCI was open to sending Team India to participate in the tournament, reports NDTV.

Shah, who is also the BCCI secretary, said that the 2023 Asia Cup may be played in a neutral venue and not Pakistan.

India had last toured Pakistan for a bilateral series in 2005-06 under the leadership of Rahul Dravid. India and Pakistan have not played a bilateral cricket series since 2012-13 when Pakistan had toured India for three T20Is and as many ODIs. Since then, both have just met in world events or Asia Cup.

Matches between the two sides are always highly anticipated and stadiums go full house. The tickets for the two team’s T20 World Cup 2022 on October 23 were sold out within hours of its release.

Of late, Pakistan have given some memorable performances against India and they even broke the World Cup jinx against India by defeating them in the T20 World Cup last year in the UAE.

Taking note of that performance, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief Ramiz Raja recently said that Team India have now started to give Pakistan respect and hence the Babar Azam-led side needs to be appreciated for giving India a tough fight.

“These are games are more about the mentality, rather than skill and talent. Even small teams can beat big teams, if they have the temperament of not giving up. Pakistan have always been the underdogs heading into (World Cup) games against India. But, they have started to give us respect, of late. Earlier, they thought that Pakistan can’t beat them,” Raja told Dawn News.

“So we should give credit to this current Pakistan team. We defeated a billion-dollar cricket industry. I have played World Cups but we never won against India. This team should be appreciated. Despite limited to resources, we are giving them a tough fight,” he added.

India and Pakistan last played in the Asia Cup recently.