No T20 World Cup 2026 for Pakistan: PCB fires stern warning to BCCI amid India's Champions Trophy 2025 uncertainty

The availability of the India National Cricket Team for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is one of the biggest topics currently in the cricketing world. The tournament is all set to take place in Pakistan in February-March next year and this in itself it's the biggest thing for the Indian team. 

Since the tournament is in Pakistan, due to security reasons, BCCI hasn't agreed to play against Pakistan in their backyard. Due to the political tensions between the two nations, they also don't play each other in the bilateral series with the last being played in 2012-13. They only play in the Asia Cup and ICC tournaments. 

With Champions Trophy 2025 being the ICC event, it remains a major question whether India will be traveling to Pakistan or not. There have been several reports that have claimed that BCCI isn't keen to send the team to and hence the tournament will be played in a hybrid model with India games slated to take place in either Dubai or Sri Lanka. It was learned that BCCI had already put forward the same statement to ICC. 

Amid all the reports of India not traveling to Pakistan, a fresh report in Geo News Urdu that the Pakistan Cricket Board has come up with a massive bold step if BCCI doesn't India. The PCB reportedly has threatened to boycott the 2026 edition of the T20 World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka. 

The reports claimed that the Pakistan Cricket Board is very firm on their statement that they won't be staging Champions Trophy 2025 out of Pakistan. The board is likely to make a strong statement during the ICC meeting in Sri Lanka next week. Chairman Mohsin Naqvi will be in the island nation to attend the meeting scheduled to take place in Colombo from July 19 to 22. 

The source close to PCB stated that their position is strong since all the teams who will be playing in Champions Trophy 2025 "have played in Pakistan, and India’s position of not coming to Pakistan is weak." Therefore if Men in Blue won't come to Pakistan then Babar Azam-led side will also not travel for the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Who will replace India if they opt out of Champions Trophy 2025 

There were even some reports which suggested that India might opt out of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 if the tournament isn't played in the hybrid model. In that case, if India opts out then Sri Lanka National Cricket Team will replace them in the event as the 8th team. 

The hybrid model was there even in the Asia Cup 2023. The tournament originally was scheduled to take place in Pakistan but the Asian Cricket Council agreed to BCCI's demands of playing in the hybrid model. Hence, India played its games in Sri Lanka along with the final while few games were played in Pakistan. 

India hasn't traveled to Pakistan since 2008. On the other hand, Men in Green visited India for the bilateral series in 2012–2013 and then for the T20 World Cup 2016 and most latest the ICC ODI World Cup 2023. Recently Rajeev Shukla, BCCI vice-president, also stated that so far they haven't decided anything related to India's travel to Pakistan and the call will be made soon.