Sri Lanka have written to the Pakistan Cricket Board asking them to reverse their refusal to face India in their T20 World Cup group.

The fixture, the biggest and most lucrative in the global game, is due to be played in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on 15 February but Pakistan’s government has said the team will not play the Group A game.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday the decision was made to “support” Bangladesh, whose request for their games to be switched from India was rejected by the International Cricket Council.

Bangladesh asked for their games to be moved citing safety concerns amid growing political tensions with India but the ICC said there was an “absence of any credible security threat”.

They were subsequently replaced by Scotland in the tournament, which begins with Pakistan facing the Netherlands in Colombo on Saturday (05:30 GMT).