India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate is delighted that the India vs Pakistan fixture has got the green signal from the Pakistan government. The Dutchman said the team is trying to stay away from the politics and focus all their energy on their preparation.

Earlier, Pakistan government said Salman Agha’s team will not take the field against India though they will travel for the World Cup to Sri Lanka. After discussions while keeping the huge financial risk in mind, PCB took a U-turn on their boycott decision.

“First of all, it’s great that the game is back on, we never changed (our) preparation (or thought) that the game wasn’t going to happen. We always had an impression that something would transpire and we would play, so it’s not a big change in the way we go about things,” Ten Doeschate told reporters at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.

“We got confirmation late yesterday. We’d like to have another chance to play against a quality side and it’s good for the team.”

The former batter said it is imperative for the team to focus on their cricket and not worry about the politics.

“We try to stay clear of all the politics. I’ve mentioned before about the sentiments of the country and know the 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 are fully focused on just bringing our best game to that fixture next week,” he said.

India will next take on Namibia at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Thursday.