Ryan ten Doeschate: Playing Pakistan in Colombo could be a 'challenge'

India's assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate believes it could be a "challenge" to play Pakistan in Colombo, where they have been based for two weeks already during the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Ten Doeschate was speaking in Delhi on Tuesday, the day after the Pakistan government called off the boycott of the February 15 group fixture against India. He said India's preparations had not changed despite the uncertainty of the last ten days.

"First of all, it's great that the game's back on," ten Doeschate said. "We kind of never changed our preparation that the game wasn't going to happen. We were always under the impression that something would transpire and we would play. So it's no big change the way we are going about things. And I guess we kind of got confirmation sort of late yesterday and early this morning. It started coming through that the game was going to go ahead and we are delighted to have another chance to play against the quality side (Pakistan) in this first phase of the tournament.

"We kind of accepted that as a status quo (to play), and until we got there and they didn't show up, we were assuming we were going to play. We also, we're trying to stay clear of all the politics I've mentioned before about the sentiments of the country and know the different politics between the two countries, but it's really important for us just to focus on the cricket side of things. It's going to be a challenge going to Colombo where Pakistan have been for the last two weeks and we fully focused on just bringing our best game to that fixture next week."

Pakistan, however, have played their first two group fixtures at the Sinhalese Sports Club but will take on India at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. They have a four day break between their second group match on February 10 and the India fixture on February 15.

India, on the other hand, have a shorter turnaround. They will travel to Colombo on February 13, after playing Namibia in Delhi on Thursday. The recent head-to-head record is heavily in India's favour, having won their last five matches against Pakistan going back to October 2022.