In a first, captains speak to presenters from their respective countries at toss

Dubai, Sep 28: Animosity between India and Pakistan team continued prior to the mega final of the Asia Cup with two presenters – India’s Ravi Shastri and Pakistan’s Waqar Younis – conducting the snap interviews at the toss.
This is the first time in the history of international cricket that two former players will be conducting the toss interview as Pakistan didn’t want to speak to Indian presenter Shastri following the bitter build-up to the title clash.
It is learnt that from among the broadcasters, Shastri, who has done the toss presentation during the earlier two Indo-Pak games in the tournament, had been assigned to speak to both Suryakumar Yadav and Salman Ali Agha after the toss.
However, a request was sent to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) from the PCB for a neutral presenter. When the ACC went back to BCCI with the request, they had clearly mentioned that Shastri can’t be replaced.
As a middle-of-the-road solution, it was decided that Salman would speak to his country’s pace legend Waqar, while Surya would interact with former India head coach Shastri. Also, in a departure from convention, Salman did the trophy shoot alone instead of doing alongside his Indian counterpart. (PTI)