Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan reckons Pakistan can take a U-turn on their boycott threat at any time ahead of the T20 World Cup. The Pakistan government recently gave permission to their cricket team to travel to Sri Lanka for the World Cup, but said Salman Agha’s team will not play against India.

India and Pakistan are in Group A and they were all set to take on each other on February 15 at Colombo. The ICC has warned PCB about the implications regarding their boycott.

“In the group stages, you won’t see any challenges. Pakistan has decided to boycott the match against India, but that U-turn can happen anytime now. Even if they make a U-Turn, will they be able to give us a challenge? If you look at previous matches between them, it does not look like they can challenge us,” Irfan Pathan said on his YouTube channel.

The former swing bowler said India are firm favorites for the World Cup but warned Suryakumar Yadav’s team to not take the tournament as a bilateral series.

“If you ask any cricket lover, whether it be Indian or non-Indian, they will say that India are favorites to lift the World Cup. The T20I setup looks really good, but when World Cup comes, the challenges are different, it is not a bilateral series,” Irfan Pathan said.

“The real challenge will begin when the Super 8 stage begins, from there the real World Cup begins. If there are no upsets, then India could face South Africa, Australia, and the West Indies in the Super 8, according to the pre-seeding,” he added.

India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against the USA on February 7.